: 




Class 

Book 

GopyrigM - 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The University of Chicago Publications 
in Religious Education 

EDITED BY 

ERNEST D. BURTON SHAILER MATHEWS 

THEODORE G. SOARES 



constructive studies 



WHAT JESUS TAUGHT 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY 

NEW TORE 



THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON 

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SKNDAI 

THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 

SHANOHAI 



WHAT JESUS 
TAUGHT 

FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS AND CLASSES 



By 
A. Wakefield Slaten 

Head of the Department of Religion and Ethics 

in the Young Men s Christian Association College 

of Chicago 



WH 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



CL \-\ 






Copyright 1922 By 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published May 1922 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 



JUN-372 

©CI.A674468 



3 






"The Bible is the word of Life. I beg that you will read it 
and find this out for yourselves — read, not little snatches here 
and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the 
heart of it." — Woodrow Wilson. 

"Every relationship to mankind of hate or scorn or neglect 
is full of vexation and torment. There is nothing to do with 
men, but to love them, to contemplate their virtues with admira- 
tion, their faults with pity and forbearance, and their injuries 
with forgiveness. ' ' — Anonymous . 

"And after all, when we come to think of it, error alone 
is dangerous; things are what they are; how can true ideas 
concerning them harm us, or false ones benefit us ?" — Paulsen. 

"// any man is able to convince me, and show me that I do 
not think or act rightly I will gladly change; for I seek the 
truth, by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured 
who abides in his error and ignorance." — Marcus Aurelius. 



TO THOSE WHO ARE WILLING 
TO TAKE THE PAINS TO FIND 
OUT WHAT JESUS TAUGHT 



PREFATORY NOTE 

It is the firm conviction of the editors of the 
series in which this book appears that in the ideals 
of Jesus as set forth in his words and exemplified 
in his life are to be found the answers to the great 
questions of personal conduct and the way of life 
for communities and nations. There are various 
ways of approach to the study of these ideals, each 
of which has its advantages. The present volume 
illustrates an unusual method of study, but one 
which we believe to be well adapted to groups of 
students in colleges, and to thoughtful adults every- 
where. To such they heartily commend it. 

The Editors 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword xv 

Hints to Leaders xix 

CHAPTER 

I. Why People Study the Bible .... i 
II. What the Bible Is . . . . 23 

III. The World Jesus Lived In .... 44 

IV. The Importance and the Difficulty of 
Knowing What Jesus Taught. ... 61 

V. What Jesus Taught about Civilization . 72 

VI. What Jesus Taught about Hate, War, and 

Non-Resistance 101 

VII. What Jesus Taught about Democracy . . 118 

VEIL What Jesus Taught about Religion . .128 

IX. What Jesus Taught about Himself . .158 

X. What Jesus Taught: The Hope of the 
World 178 

Index 191 



FOREWORD 

The discussions outlined in this book are in- 
tended especially for groups of college students 
and of others of like maturity of mind. The 
field of study is limited to the three gospels, 
Mark, Matthew, and Luke, called, because they 
treat the life of Jesus from the same general 
point of view, the synoptists (Greek synoptikos, 
" seeing together"). It has been thought best not 
to attempt to discriminate between the elements 
of the gospels which may come directly from Jesus 
and those that may hail from the gospel writers 
themselves or from the circles of early Christian 
thinking which they represent. This is a task 
frequently attempted by scholars, but one which 
involves a much longer course of study than many 
people have time for. It has seemed more practi- 
cal to take all the teachings upon a given subject 
which the gospels Mark, Matthew, and Luke attrib- 
ute to Jesus and build these into as complete and 
consistent a statement as we can. 

It is expected that all users of the book will keep 
the New Testament at hand and verify from it all 
statements made for which passages are cited. No 
textbook can take the place of direct study of the 
New Testament itself. 



xvi Foreword 

The book is designed to be usable in a variety of 
ways, for example: 

i. Where the group leader only may have a copy 
of the book. 

2. Where each member of the group has a copy. 

3. Where members of the group may be 
expected to study beforehand. 

4. Where the study must be made in class. 

5. Where the book is used by individuals for 
personal and devotional study. 

For the average Sunday-school class or student 
group, it will be advisable for each member to have 
his own copy. Where the group is very large and 
the lecture method must largely be employed, it may 
be sufficient for the leader alone to have a copy. 
Used in this way he will find the book to contain 
material for about thirty lectures. In summer- 
school and conference classes of the Y.M.C.A. and 
Y.W.C.A. every member of the group should be 
provided with the book. 

Wherever possible the chapter or part of a chap- 
ter to be used for a basis of discussion should be 
carefully studied beforehand by the members of the 
group, and the gospel passages consulted. In no 
case, however, should the meeting of the group take 
the form of a recitation. The object of the book is 
to stimulate constructive thinking, not to train the 
memory. Where study cannot be expected the 
passages should be read and discussed in the group. 



Foreword xvii 

Where individuals use the book for personal study, 
a careful checking up of the gospel passages cited 
should be made, the book freely marked, and notes 
kept on the flyleaves of thoughts suggested by the 
study. When the user rinds statements at variance 
with his present belief he should make note of them 
for future thought and investigation. 

Only a few things are necessary to make college 
Bible-study discussion groups interesting and profit- 
able. Think clearly and hard; speak with modesty 
and candor; never fail to make your contribution 
to the discussion, but beware of monopolizing class 
time; never slur another's views, however absurd 
they may seem to you; avoid overstatements and 
bad temper; realize that ultimately thought rules 
in this world, and that we get ahead by sharing 
thoughts; stick to the evidence; believe that people 
can and will find the truth and that it is best for 
them to have the truth; be absolutely free to follow 
wherever the truth leads you. It is said that all 
the wonderful progress made by modern science has 
been made by the inductive method of reasoning, 
and that the inductive method of reasoning consists 
of three stages : accurate observation, exact record, 
limited inference. Where these are practiced the 
discussions will always bring wholesome results. 

The aim of the book, however, is not so much to 
furnish a manual of methods as to suggest a basis 
for class discussions and to indicate the spirit in 



xviii Foreword 

which discussions may be most profitably carried 
on. The topics chosen are those which experience 
with numerous discussion groups of various types, 
e.g., Y.M.C.A. secretaries, ministers, Y.W.C.A. 
secretaries, college students, Baraca classes, and 
groups of business men, has shown to be of 
formative value. In so far as the book is informa- 
tional it tries to put into the user's hands facts that 
will be helpful to him in his personal religious think- 
ing and in teaching and promoting classes. Most 
of all, though, it is hoped that, though those who 
use this book may not agree with one another on 
all points, they will find in the class a constant 
demonstration of Christianity, and will come to the 
end with that enthusiasm for service, that passion for 
"the Jesus way of living," that esprit de corps and 
affection for one another, that tolerance that results 
from united devotion to a great unselfish cause, 
which have marked the members of the discussion 
groups with whom the author has used these studies. 
Remember the words of Jesus, " I am among you 
as he that serveth" (Luke 22:27). The question 
one is to put to one's self in every situation is, 
"How can I be of service to this person or to these 
persons so that working together we may make this 
a better world?" God bless you, fellow-students 
in the teaching of Jesus, and build you in helpful 
ways into the lives of hundreds and of thousands. 

A. Wakefield Slaten 



HINTS TO LEADERS 

No certain period is specified in which a group 
ought to cover the chapters of this book. Some 
mature groups may be able to cover a chapter at 
each discussion. In practice, however, it has been 
found that each chapter furnished stimulus for 
several discussion periods of one hour each. The 
leader should not hurry the matter. The point is 
not to get through the book as soon as possible, but 
to follow the class interests, seize the moment of 
aroused curiosity, and hold points before the minds 
of the group for all possible views to be brought out 
and a tentative conclusion to be reached. At the 
close of each discussion the leader should sum up 
impartially and briefly the general sentiment, 
remembering that it represents the joint thinking of 
the group up to the moment, and that it may be 
revised later. He should regard the discussions as 
a process, and not look upon the sentiments 
expressed as unalterable decisions. This considera- 
tion tends to tolerance and temperate speech. 

In every group there will be a few quiet souls 
who will be content to listen. Often their thinking 
is the straightest and most suggestive that is being 
done. The leader must be skilful enough to enlist 
their contribution, or the discussion will suffer seri- 
xix 



xx Hints to Leaders 

ous loss. He can easily find a way to do this with- 
out embarrassment to the quiet one. Direct ques- 
tions should be avoided in such cases, as the timid 
member is likely to reply, " I don't know," and thus 
to be confirmed in his diffidence. Skilful teachers 
are careful not to permit their pupils to fail in recita- 
tion, because failure destroys confidence and tends 
to induce an attitude of, "Well, I know I can't do 
it." He may speak to the silent member before 
or after the discussion and encourage participation. 
If there are several of them he may "jolly" them 
during the discussion as a group and get them to 
take part. The object of the discussion is the 
development of every member in thinking and in 
expressing his thoughts. 

On the other hand, an overconfident member 
will occasionally emerge whose tendency is to mo- 
nopolize the discussion and make himself a bore. 
Here skilful and quick action is necessary. As a 
first step, the leader may emphasize the need of 
general discussion and the drawing out of the think- 
ing of all. If necessary, he may go farther and say, 
"We now have Mr. Blank's views before us pretty 
fully, let's see what some others have to say." 
Where the talking member is incorrigible, group 
action is likely to be the best way of handling him. 
Let the class be asked, "Mr. Blank has already 
spoken several times. Shall we hear him further, 
or get the views of others?" The group will usu- 



Hints to Leaders xxi 

ally find a way of "sitting down" upon an obstrep- 
erous and selfish member who " likes to do all the 
talking." 

Further, the leader must himself be on his guard 
that he does not himself talk too much. He is not 
to carry on a monologue. It has been found a good 
plan for him to have someone in the group hold a 
watch and check up the number of seconds taken 
by him in his remarks. He ought to take less than 
half the total time. 

Again the leader is not to allow himself to 
become involved in a dialogue. He is not to debate 
with any member, and should interject remarks only 
to guide and to stimulate discussion. He must sum 
up fairly at the close, even though the drift of senti- 
ment has been against his personal convictions. 
He is not functioning as a teacher, in the ordinary 
sense; he is not a lecturer; he is one of the group, 
presiding for the purpose of getting the topic before 
the minds of the group and of holding the discussion 
to the topic proposed. He must, if the discussion 
wanders into unrelated subjects, switch it back on 
the main track. 

The leader must make himself the central figure 
to whom the remarks of the members are addressed. 
Cross-firing of remarks from one member to another 
takes the discussion out of his control. If he is alert 
and quick on the uptake and gives each member his 
chance, he can generally keep the control. There 



xxii Hints to Leaders 

should be no formality, no addressing of the leader 
as "Mr. Chairman"; the discussion is not a debat- 
ing club. 

The leader has a position that is very important 
and influential. He is a promoter of constructive 
thinking. His interest is not an abstract one, in 
the subject under discussion, but a concrete one, 
the possible effects upon thought and character of 
the discussion. He should be a level-headed per- 
son, mentally alert, not quick-tempered, and should 
have a sense of humor. 

The ability to lead a discussion group well is one 
to be prized and developed. Clear thinking is 
greatly needed on all sides, in no place more so than 
in religion. The discussion-group leader has an 
opportunity for distinctive and influential service. 



CHAPTER I 
WHY PEOPLE STUDY THE BIBLE 

Impulsive action. — People often act without any 
philosophy of action. Even far-reaching decisions 
such as the choice of a college, one's business, one's 
wife or husband, may be made without clearly 
thinking out the arguments pro and con or consider- 
ing the implications of the decision. This sort of 
action we call action from impulse. Sometimes it 
turns out well, but often it is ill-advised and fol- 
lowed by regret. Most wrong action is impulsive 
action. Impulse is not a safe guide until its sugges- 
tions have been approved by calm thinking. 

Action from habit or custom. — Again, in things 
that we have been doing for a long time, or that we 
are used to seeing others do, we are very liable to 
act without thinking why. If we follow unthink- 
ingly our own way of acting, we are controlled by 
habit; if we unthinkingly copy others, we are con- 
trolled by custom. Habit and custom sometimes 
have good foundations, but often they have not. 
Neither habit nor custom is a safe guide until it has 
been examined as to its reason and value and we 
have assured ourselves of its efficiency and good 
sense. 

Reasoned action. — The safest basis for action is 
reason. Taking all the relevant facts into considera- 



2 What Jesus Taught 

tion, thinking out what the effects of our action are 
likely to be, noticing what alternatives there are, 
weighing what the result will be if we do not act at 
all, questioning whether our inclinations are biased 
in any way, disregarding prejudice and fear, we at 
length decide and act. Often, however, it is neces- 
sary to decide and act quickly, and there is not 
time for us to review all the facts, or see all the 
alternatives, or perceive all the effects. Even 
with plenty of time to turn over the matter in our 
minds we may overlook some determinative factor, 
or our judgment may be affected by emotion, as 
anger or dislike, or we may be overinfluenced by 
another person, and so our reasoned action turn out 
after all to be wrong or mistaken. Nevertheless, 
such a method of action comes nearest to perfection, 
and when a number of people reason together on a 
matter, their calm, united judgment is very likely 
to be correct. Prayer is of value both to individu- 
als and to groups in reasoning and reaching deci- 
sions, because it steadies and quiets one and clears 
the mind so it can do its best work. Reasoned 
action, then, is most likely to be right action. 

The discussion-group method. — Now in the dis- 
cussion-group method of Bible-study as in perhaps 
no other method reasoned action tends to displace 
action from impulse, habit, or custom. Though 
probably many members of the discussion group 
have already, through personal reading, attendance 



Why People Study the Bible 3 

upon or teaching of Bible classes, correspondence 
courses, or other church, college, or young people 's 
activities, given more or less attention to the Bible, 
experience with large numbers of people in succes- 
sive classes shows that generally what has been 
acquired through such methods is rather a theory 
about the Bible than knowledge of the Bible itself. 
Also the general effect has been to develop what 
may be called the accepting type of mind, rather 
than the investigative, constructive type. The dis- 
cussion-group method as we propose to follow it is 
severe in its demands for patient, free, constructive 
thinking. Its effects are consequently more deeply 
registered in character. Its appeal is to one's 
thinking power, rather than to impulse, habit, or 
custom. It presupposes that you, as a member of 
the discussion group, are willing to lay down any- 
thing that you may have previously thought true, 
if the discussions bring out facts that disprove your 
opinion; it presupposes, too, that, as a member of 
the discussion group, you are willing to take up and 
champion anything that may be new to you or 
which you may previously have thought false, if 
the discussions bring out facts that prove that 
thing true. If you cannot assume this attitude 
you had much better stop at this point and have 
nothing to do with the discussion group. The dis- 
cussions of people who are already unalterably com- 
mitted to any opinion result in no progress and are 



4 What Jesus Taught 

likely to be painful. It is only those who are sin- 
cerely willing to reason together upon the common 
stock of facts who can reach a concert of opinion, or 
be really helpful to one another. In the discussion 
group action is to be based, not upon impulse, habit, 
or custom, but upon reason. 

WHERE BIBLE-STUDY FAILS 

Superficiality. — With impulse, habit, or custom 
as an incentive, it has long been a common thing for 
people to study, or to think they were studying, the 
Bible. Obviously, however, much of their effort 
was not real study. Study has been defined as 
" mental effort to master a problem." Study of 
that type always strengthens the mind, provokes 
original thought, arouses discussion, affects con- 
duct, and builds character. Much so-called Bible- 
study has not done that, because it was not mental 
effort to master a problem. It involved only the 
passive assimilation of a mass of predigested 
instruction. It was thus easy, superficial, and 
developed only believers, not thinkers. It did not 
call for that tense strain of will, that merciless 
uncovering of one's weaknesses and ignorances 
which real study involves. It failed, therefore, to 
incite eager, robust, independent, fearless search for 
fact, with that search's consequent bracing effect 
upon character. Much so-called Bible-study fails 
because of its superficiality. 



Why People Study the Bible 5 

Misdirection. — Further, some study of the 
Bible that is earnest and ingenious is worthless 
because it is misdirected. Much sturdy walking 
may be done on a road that leads nowhere. In 
rightly directed study we take up a subject with an 
adequate idea of what it is, and what is to be gained 
from it. We do not take up French and think we 
are studying Greek, nor practice the cornet and say 
we are learning the piano. But with the Bible this 
has not been the case. It has often been studied 
as if it were something other than it is. This para- 
graph is not the place to go into detail, but it is 
right to say that there have been some sad conse- 
quences. An amount of effort has been put forth 
that would have made a cultured Christian gentle- 
man, and the result has been only a fanatic or a 
bore. Acquaintance with these misguided Bible- 
students has often prejudiced people against the 
Bible. Moreover, the effort to reconcile an arti- 
ficial view of the Bible which one has been taught 
with one's own reading of it, or with the results of 
one's studies in other subjects, often involves acute 
distress and sometimes the loss of faith. None of 
these is the Bible's fault, but the fault of previous 
misdirected effort and of regarding the Bible as 
something other than it really is. Like every other 
thing that has objective existence, the Bible actu- 
ally is something, and has been that something all 
the while, no matter what may have been thought 



6 What Jesus Taught 

about it or claimed for it. For lack of finding out 
at the start what the Bible is much time and effort 
has been wasted. 

CONTROLLING INTERESTS IN BIBLE-STUDY 

i. Language. — Before we go farther, or attempt 
to say what the Bible is and how we plan to approach 
it, let us think over the main interests that have 
controlled people in their study of the Bible. 
Naturally there are a number of these, and they 
vary in their value. To begin with the interest 
that is perhaps to most people the most remote and 
unusual, some have studied it because of its lan- 
guage, or more properly, its languages, for as it stood 
originally the Bible was in three languages, the Old 
Testament being in Hebrew and Aramaic, the 
New Testament in Greek. Only a small part of 
the Old Testament was in Aramaic, however, 1 
and Hebrew and Aramaic are sister-languages, like 
Spanish and Portuguese, so that a man who can 
read Hebrew can easily learn Aramaic. 

Now the Old Testament contains the best 
Hebrew that has ever been written, consequently it 
has an attraction for the person who is interested in 
that language, as many Jews and some Gentiles are. 

1 Only Ezra 4 : 8 — 6 : 18; 7 : 1 2-26; Dan. 2 : \b — 7 : 28 are written 
in Aramaic. Besides these there are a few Aramaic words and 
phrases in the New Testament, for example in Mark 5:41; 7 : 34; 
15:34; Matt. 27:46; I Cor. 16:22. 



Why People Study the Bible 7 

There is another important and much larger collec- 
tion of literature written in Hebrew, the Talmud, 1 
but although this has much curious and interesting 
and valuable material, the language and style is not 
equal to the Hebrew of the Bible. 

If a Frenchman were interested in American 
literature, and had a talent for language-study, he 
would prefer to read our best authors in the lan- 
guage they used, rather than in a translation. In 
the same way, a person who is interested in Hebrew 
literature, and has a talent for language-study, 
wishes to read the Old Testament authors in 
Hebrew, the language in which they wrote. Often 
interest in the Bible itself has created interest in its 
languages. Men have been led to study the 
Hebrew Old Testament in order to translate it into 
some other language, or to improve a translation 
already in existence. Often, too, it has been sup- 
posed that those who could read the Bible in its origi- 
nal languages had a great advantage, in that they 
could discover meanings hidden to the reader of a 

1 This is an immense collection of Hebrew learning twenty 
times as large as the Old Testament. It contains two parts, the 
Mishna, compiled in its present form by Rabbi Juda the Holy 
about 200 a.d., and the Gemara, written by later rabbis down to 
about 500 a.d. It consists of the Jewish oral law reduced to 
writing, plus comments on the law of Moses, or written law. 
Scholars are drawn to the study of the Talmud, not for its lan- 
guage, but for its intrinsic interest and the influence it has had 
upon Judaism. 



8 What Jesus Taught 

translation. This is why ministers were formerly 
thoroughly trained in Hebrew. At the present 
time this advantage, which after all ministers did 
not very generally make much use of, is less con- 
sidered, and other subjects, regarded as more essen- 
tial, are emphasized. 

Passing to the New Testament, the case is not 
in all respects the same. The New Testament does 
not contain the best Greek ever written. Most of 
it is in the common, everyday Greek of the time 
when it was written. Some of it, indeed, is very 
poor and ungrammatical Greek. In only a few 
places is there an attempt to use bookish language. 
The classic period of Greek literature was from 500 
to 300 B.C., while the books of the New Testament 
were not written till roughly 70-170 a.d., centuries 
after the greatest Greek authors had passed away. 
Those who are interested in Greek literature and 
wish to read it in the original therefore prefer to 
read Homer and Demosthenes and Plato, rather 
than the Book of Revelation, or James, Peter, or 
Mark, or even the better Greek of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews and of Luke and of Paul. But if one 
cares for the history of language, the New Testa- 
ment Greek has a great interest because it shows 
him how the language was changing and gives him 
a link between the earlier Greek of the post-classical 
period and the later Greek of the patristic and 
Byzantine periods. In fact the modern Greek of 



Why People Study the Bible 9 

the present day is much less different from the 
Greek of the New Testament than is generally sup- 
posed. 1 

2. History. — A somewhat larger group is drawn 
to the Bible by an interest in history. History 
is coming to be regarded more and more as the 
great teacher of mankind. While a knowledge of 
history does not make one able to foretell the future 
with accuracy, it does tend to give a broad under- 
standing of life and enables one to see the causes of 
many of our present conditions. Now closely knit 
up with the history of all the nations of Europe and 
America are two elements, the Jewish people and 
the Christian religion. The source book for the 
early history of both these elements is the Bible. 

The Old Testament gives what the Jews knew or 
believed as to their origin, their settlement in Pales- 
tine, the development of the Jewish state, the acts 
of their various kings, their political connections 

1 M. Hatziadakis, a modern Greek scholar, finds that 46 per 
cent of the words used in the New Testament are current in 
modern Greek today. In fact the realization that Greek is a 
modern language, spoken by nine million people, suggests the 
feasibility and interest of making the approach to ancient Greek 
through the medium of the modern, living language, which does 
not differ from the Greek of the earlier periods as the Romance 
languages differ from the Latin from which they spring. It is 
recommended that any reader who is interested in Greek form 
an acquaintance with a Greek. This is not difficult, as they are 
to be found in business in our cities and towns generally. Such 
an acquaintance will lead to many interesting discoveries. 



io What Jesus Taught 

with adjacent nations, their subjugation and exile, 
and their return to Palestine about 445 B.C. Sub- 
sequent Jewish history must be sought in other 
books, but the Old Testament gives the most of 
what is known up to this point. 

Josephus, it is true, wrote fully on Jewish history 
up to 70 a.d., in his two books The Antiquities of the 
Jews, and The Jewish War, but the former is largely 
a re-writing and expansion of the Old Testament. 
Similarly, in the early Christian writers before 325 
a.d., whose works have been preserved and which 
are collected and translated into English in a set of 
ten large volumes called the Ante-Nicene Fathers, 
we have much that throws light upon their own 
time, but their works draw upon the New Testa- 
ment for whatever historical matter they present 
concerning the origin of Christianity. The New 
Testament goes farther back and gives us what at 
the earliest period was known and believed among 
the early Christians as to the origin and develop- 
ment of the Christian movement, including the life 
and teaching of its founder. Because, therefore, of 
interest in the Jews, or in Christianity, or because 
both are involved in the history of modern civiliza- 
tion, people have been led to study the Bible. 

3. Proof -texts. — A third interest leading to 
Bible-study has been the desire to find there the 
basis for a belief or a defense of a doctrine. This 
we may call the theological, or proof-text inter- 



Why People Study the Bible ii 

est. 1 From a remote period this has been a powerful 
stimulus to Bible-study. The Jewish rabbis used 
the Old Testament in this way before Christianity 
began. The early Christians borrowed the idea 
from their own Jewish training or from their Jewish 
neighbors. The New Testament in many passages, 
notably in the Gospel of Matthew, shows the work- 
ing of this interest. After the books of the New 
Testament had been written and collected into 
one sacred book the Christians used statements 
from it also in proof of the correctness of their views. 
Thus the Bible was largely woven into the doctrines 
of Catholic Christianity, and is still quoted in their 
support. 2 

When in the sixteenth century a great number 
of Roman Catholic Christians broke away from the 
rest under the leadership of Martin Luther in Ger- 
many, John Calvin in Switzerland, and other 
leaders elsewhere, these Protestants, as they were 
called, put a still stronger emphasis upon the Bible 

1 The cause of this interest has been the common assumption, 
first by the Hebrews themselves, later, and to a modified degree, 
by the Catholic church in its various branches, and finally and 
to an extreme degree in Protestantism, that in the Bible is given 
a divinely produced and therefore errorless book, telling what 
God desires people to do and believe, particularly in matters 
looked upon as distinctly religious. Looking upon the Bible 
in this way, it has been natural to turn to it as an arbiter of 
religious opinion. 

2 Consult, for example, Cardinal Gibbons' The Faith of Out 
Fathers, where frequent quotations from the Bible occur. 



12 What Jesus Taught 

as the source book for religious belief, giving it the 
indisputable authority which they had formerly 
given to the teachings and the officials of the church. 
William Chillingworth, a Protestant theologian who 
died in 1644, is the author of the sentence that 
summarizes this view: "The Bible, the Bible, the 
religion of Protestants." It was inevitable, how- 
ever, that differences of opinion should arise. Dif- 
ferent leaders understood the Bible differently or 
emphasized different doctrines and won adherents 
to their views. Out of these groups the various 
Protestant denominations developed, which now, 
because they have become strongly organized and 
aggressive and have come to have traditions and a 
character of their own that tends to bind their 
members to loyalty, and, moreover, because in each 
there is constantly growing up an army of children, 
continue to exist long after the doctrinal disputes 
that called them into being have become dead 
issues. In addition to this, new sects every now 
and again spring up, seceding from the old ones, 
under leaders who take as a basis for their claims 
some part or parts of the Bible. It is evident that 
the theological or proof-text interest has had and 
has yet a controlling interest over the Bible-study 
of many religious leaders and their followers. 

4. Sermon-making. — A fourth interest, and 
related to the preceding, is the homiletic or sermon- 
making interest felt by ministers and other speakers 



Why People Study the Bible 13 

on religious subjects who are accustomed to use 
quotations from the Bible as summaries or sugges- 
tions of their addresses, or to lend authority to what 
they are going to say. This interest may be seen at 
work in almost any public religious service, though 
preaching from texts is not now so much in vogue 
as formerly, having yielded considerably to the 
theme or topic method. It is still influential 
enough, however, to cause speakers to seek Scrip- 
ture passages that will bear, or seem to bear, some 
relation to the topic in hand. To secure such refer- 
ence, recourse is often had to what is called " accom- 
modation," that is, the passage is treated as giving 
or suggesting some meaning which in its original 
intention it clearly did not have. Dr. John A. 
Broadus, a southern theological educator, in warning 
against this practice in his textbook on homiletics, 
tells of an ignorant preacher who objected to the 
way the ladies of his congregation wore their hair, 
piled high on their heads, and preached a sermon 
against it from Mark 13 : 15, "Let him that is upon 
the housetop not come down," leaving out the pre- 
ceding words and making his text read, "Topknot, 
come down!" Such a searching of Scripture to 
find passages, which, when isolated from their con- 
text will seem to have a meaning they do not at all 
have when read along with the words that precede 
and follow them, is not limited to the ignorant. 
When Archbishop Lang began the campaign of 



14 What Jesus Taught 

fellowship between Great Britain and the United 
States in March, 191 8, he took for the text of his 
first sermon a part of Luke 5:7: "And they beck- 
oned to their partners in the other boat that they 
should come and help them. And they came," the 
allusion of course being to the aid rendered England 
by America in the world-war then in progress. 
Though distinctly a professional interest, this use 
of the Bible in support of the ideas about to be 
propounded in a public address is a very gen- 
eral one. 

5. Bibliomancy. — Another use of the Bible, by 
no means infrequent, arises from a belief in its 
value as an instrument of magic. Magic may be 
described as the power to produce effects, not other- 
wise possible, through the possession and use of 
certain objects or formulae. Thus among primi- 
tive peoples it has been believed that to possess a 
bit of a person's hair or nails gave one a power over 
that person. Witch doctors and sorcerers had 
objects and knew charms that were believed to have 
power to produce fortune or misfortune for the one 
to whom they chose to direct them. The Bible has 
been much used as an instrument capable of pro- 
ducing magic results. Among the Jews certain 
passages were formerly believed to have special 
magic powers. To stop a child from crying, to 
insure easy child-birth, to ward off danger, to 
shield one from swallowing demons when drinking 



Why People Study the Bible 15 

uncovered water on Wednesday or Saturday nights, 
when Lilith, the queen of the demons, was abroad 
with her myriads, specific passages were quoted. 
This practice of using the Bible in a magical way 
has been given the name "bibliomancy," or Bible- 
magic. A more familiar modern example of the 
same type treats the Bible as if it had the power of 
telling fortunes, or miraculously giving advice. To 
decide a question people have opened the Bible at 
random and read the first verse they happened to 
see, taking it as supernatural guidance. A factory 
owner in the East was undecided whether or not he 
should put up a cottage by the lake as a summer 
home for his family. He determined to let the Bible 
answer, and, letting it fall open as it would, his eye 
lighted on Ps. 127:1, "Except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it." This he 
took to be an intimation that he should not build 
the cottage. A few trials, however, if nothing else, 
will convince almost anyone that it is only occasion- 
ally that the verse found will have any possible 
bearing on the matter in hand, and that when it 
does, it is purely accidental. Its only value is 
that it sometimes helps irresolute persons to reach 
a decision, just as flipping a coin does. Though 
the Bible has frequently been used in a magical 
way, it is obvious that such a use belongs in the 
same class with the ouija and planchette boards, 
and the telling of fortunes by cards. 



1 6 What Jesus Taught. 

6, Devotion. — Still a sixth influence that has 
impelled people to study the Bible has been their 
devotional interest. Probably all persons pray at 
some time in their lives, but some make prayer a 
daily habit. They thus feel the need of some book 
as a help in inducing a prayerful frame of mind, or 
as a suggestion for framing a prayer into words. 
No book fits this need for a prayer manual better 
than certain parts of the Bible, especially the 
Psalms. Most of these are in fact prayers used in 
the ancient Hebrew ritual of worship, as hymn 
books and prayer books are used in churches today. 
There are many other books that are helpful, such 
as the Discourses of Epictetus, or Brother Law- 
rence's The Practice of the Presence of God, or The 
Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, or Jeremy 
Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying, or the books 
of prayers by Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter 
Rauschenbusch. Besides these there are the noble 
and ancient prayers to be found in the Book of 
Common Prayer of the Episcopal church, and in 
other church rituals. But no book is so commonly 
used in a devotional way as the Bible, for many of 
the phrases and ideas of the prayer books are them- 
selves borrowings from the Bible. Where people 
practice prayer habitually they are very likely to 
read or study the Bible, too. 

7. Character-building. — There remains still a 
seventh ground for Bible-study which perhaps ex- 



Why People Study the Bible 17 

plains more than any other why great numbers of 
people study the Bible and why organizations assid- 
uously promote discussion groups and other forms 
of Bible-study. Their interest arises from a recog- 
nition of the character-forming value of the Bible. 
Rightly studied, with a clear, open mind, with frank 
discussions, with no biased approach, the Bible 
is bound to react upon us in such a way as to 
strengthen character. The reason for this lies in 
the nature of the Bible itself. Character is built up 
by numberless small decisions made in keeping with 
an ideal. We get our ideals from the lives of those 
we admire, from our own personal aspirations, and 
from the inspiration of books. Books furnish us 
with ideals according as they either depict a hero or 
heroine superior in some quality to ourselves, or as 
they show the working out of some moral principle. 
Examples of the first class are Victor Hugo's Les 
MiserableSj Thackeray's Henry Esmond, and Ben- 
jamin Franklin's Autobiography. To the second 
class belong books like Edward Everett Hale's Ten 
Times One Is Ten, Charles Reade's The Cloister and 
the Hearth, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Let- 
ter, George Eliot's Romola, and Samuel Smiles 's 
Self -Help, and Character. 

In both these means through which books 
furnish ideals, the literature of the Bible is unsur- 
passed. In such of its books as Genesis, I and II 
Samuel, and the Books of Kings and Nehemiah we 



1 8 What Jesus Taught 

have the stage full of powerful and interesting char- 
acters, while in the New Testament gospels and 
Acts we have Jesus and his leading followers, Peter 
and Paul. In Proverbs, on the other hand, and in 
the Minor Prophets, and in the epistles of the New 
Testament, we have examples of the second type, 
giving moral teaching. Contact with the great 
characters and moral teachings of the Bible thus 
aids us in the establishment of firm, dependable, 
good character. 

The effect of not studying the Bible : nullifica- 
tion. — Though for various reasons a great many 
people study or use the Bible, there are a great 
many more who for various reasons do not read it. 
One may have lacked education, or have had to do 
hard work with long hours that prevented much 
reading, or one may not have cared for reading, or 
may have grown up among people who were not 
accustomed to Bible-study, or one may have, on 
the other hand, grown up among those who used the 
Bible a great deal, but in a way that gave one an 
aversion for it, or one may have had opportunities 
and have neglected them. It is not so much the 
cause as the effect of not studying the Bible, that 
we are thinking of now. The effect is that we shut 
out of our lives whatever contribution the Bible 
might have made to us. It is obvious that if one 
does not study Latin or algebra one must get along 
without the contributions that those studies would 



Why People Study the Bible 19 

have made to one's mind. In the same way, as 
long as our copy of Shakespeare stands unopened 
in the bookcase we have banished his genius from 
our lives as effectively as though his works were out 
of print and every copy lost. And the Bible, along 
with the plays of Shakespeare, and Dante's Inferno, 
and Milton's Paradise Lost, is one of those books 
people praise, but do not read. 1 But whatever the 
character of these classics may be it is nullified by 
the simple act of letting them alone. An unread 
and unstudied Bible is therefore almost the same 
as no Bible. It may not be quite the same, for 
Bible quotations and ideas may reach us indirectly 
through other reading, church attendance, or in 
other ways. Yet in general the aphorism holds 
good, an unread Bible is the same as no Bible. 

1 See the Literary Digest of September 13, 1919, p. 34, for the 
review of an article in the London Chronicle in which an ecclesi- 
astical authority estimated the number of intelligent Bible 
readers in England as 1,350 out of a population of forty-five 
millions, or roughly, one in twenty thousand. This number was 
reached by estimating the number of persons, aside from children, 
who hear parts of the Bible read in church on Sunday at five 
millions. Of these he thinks one-tenth listen with sufficient 
attention to receive any lasting impression. Of this half-million 
he thinks one-tenth read any one book of the Bible in a con- 
secutive way. Of this fifty thousand he reckons that only one- 
tenth read with any intelligent appreciation of the setting of the 
books of the Bible; while, finally, of this five thousand he believes 
not more than 1,350 read with any discrimination between the 
ethics and theology of the Old Testament and those of the New 
Testament. 



20 What Jesus Taught 

Let us illustrate: Your home town, what does it 
mean to you? It means perhaps a clean and 
charming village, the dwelling-place of a thousand 
or so good people; it means the picturesque water 
tower, visible from every surrounding hilltop; it 
means shaded streets and comfortable homes and 
white-painted churches; it means peace and quiet; 
it means far-reaching views over a varied and 
beautiful landscape; it means harvested fields and 
shocked grain, worthy of an artist's brush; it 
means nature's pageant of leaf and flower and cloud 
and sunset; it means the stately procession of the 
seasons, each with its particular glory; it means 
the quiet graveyard where loved ones lie in their 
long sleep; it means home. That is what your 
home town means to you. What does it mean to a 
man in the loop in Chicago? Nothing. It is a 
name. He has never lived there. The town has 
never had a chance to weave its spell about him. 
He cannot feel its charm because he has left it alone. 
In just the same way the Bible must mean almost 
nothing to a person who does not study it. By the 
simple act of letting it alone he has made the Bible 
largely null and void, as if it had never been 
written. 1 

1 We are to be on our guard against overstatement as to the 
necessity of Bible-study in the building up of character. We all 
know people of excellent character and often prominent in church 
or community service who know little about the Bible. More- 
over in the Roman Catholic church Bible-study by the laity is 



Why People Study the Bible 21 

Recapitulation and appeal. — We have noted the 
roots of action as being impulse, habit or custom, 
and reason. We have seen how the discussion- 
group method appeals to reason. We have 
observed that superficiality and misdirection have 
vitiated much Bible-study. We have discussed 
seven influences that lead people to Bible-study, 
viz., their interest in language, or history, or doc- 
trine, or sermon-making, or in the prayer life, or in 
deciding with regard to the future, or in the develop- 
ment of character. We have reminded ourselves 
that the Bible, like other great books, may for 
various reasons be neglected, and the results that 
might have been gained from it consequently lost. 

Let us bring to our Bible-study then the clearest, 
hardest thinking of which our minds are capable 
and, while we shall remain reverent and devotional, 
avoid cant. It has been said, "One intelligent 
question mark is worth all the pious exclamation 
points ever written." Let us determine to use our 
minds. It is not important that we all think alike 
in the discussion group, but only that we think. If 



not encouraged because of the liability of misunderstanding. 
Yet that church has many members of the most admirable 
Christian character. While we may well insist upon the 
character-building value of Bible-study we ought not thereby 
to animadvert upon the character of those who do not study it. 
Moreover, Bible ideals of conduct and character have become 
so thoroughly a part of our modern society that we are frequently 
controlled by them without recognizing their source. 



22 What Jesus Taught 

Bible-study is religious — and whatever is right is 
religious — let's not make it cheap and easy. 
When Araunah the Jebusite offered David his oxen 
and yokes and flails gratis to use as a burnt sacrifice 
to Yahveh (II Sam. 24:23) David said, "Nay, but 
I will verily buy it of thee at a price; neither will I 
offer burnt offerings unto Jehovah my God which 
cost me nothing." That is the spirit for discus- 
sion-group Bible-study! 



CHAPTER II 
WHAT THE BIBLE IS 

Literature : how it arises. — A literature may be 
defined as the expression in writing of the thoughts, 
ideals, laws, customs, and beliefs, of a people, or of 
some section of a people. Among the less familiar 
racial or national literatures of the present day- 
there is the Yiddish, written in the international 
language spoken and read by modern Jews almost 
the world over; 1 the modern Greek, of which even 
professors of Greek are likely to be ignorant, while 
among the well-known modern national literatures 
are those of France, Russia, and Germany, of Eng- 
land and America. From various political and 
religious groups in the population literature springs 
up, too, so that there is a literature, for example, of 
the Socialists, the Anarchists, and the Mormons. 
Events of general interest and importance to the 
people call out literature. The belief in witchcraft 
in colonial days, the question of slavery, and of 
states rights, which came up later, the free silver 
question in 1896, and the Great War all called out 
an abundant literature. Moreover, leading men 
who have attracted widespread attention have been 
the cause of many books being written in which 

1 Ladino is spoken by the Sephardim, or Spanish Jews. 
23 



24 What Jesus Taught 

their views and actions are discussed, approved, or 
condemned, or in which their life-story is told. 
Often such men themselves write books which put 
into print their own ideas and reflect the thought of 
the people and the events of the time. Thus we 
may say that literature is both an outgrowth of life 
and a mirror in which is reflected the conditions of 
the life from which it arose. Through the preser- 
vation of their literatures we are able to form an 
idea of the way the ancient Egyptians, Romans, 
and Greeks lived, and what they thought on various 
subjects. From this historical point of view all 
the records of the past are valuable, since each 
contributes something to our knowledge of what 
men were doing and thinking in those days. A 
city directory or a telephone book is not very inter- 
esting in itself but they would show to an investi- 
gator a hundred years from now the population of 
a city, the general use of the telephone, and other 
facts. So the documents written on papyrus 1 which 
have been found in Egypt buried in mummified 
crocodiles, and the memoranda, scraps of accounts, 
schoolboys' exercises, letters from a farm owner 
to his foreman, from a son to his mother, from 
a negligent husband to his wife, thrown out as 
waste paper and covered by the wind with dry 
sand, dug up nearly two thousand years later 
and read by us, help us to see clearly how people 
1 For examples, see George Milligan, Greek Papyri. 



What the Bible Is 25 

were living then and what they were thinking 
about. 

What literatures do for us. — It is easy to see 
that while the literatures of the past help us to 
understand what men thought and did in the past 
they do not tell us, except in an indirect way, what 
we ought to do and think now. When we learn 
what the ideas of ancient geographers were, with 
their belief that the rock of Gibraltar marked the 
edge of the world, or those of the ancient astrono- 
mers, who thought of the earth as the center of the 
universe, we do not feel bound to trade off our geog- 
raphy and astronomy for theirs. When we read 
in the Epistle of Barnabas, a Christian document of 
the second century, that the reason why Moses for- 
bade the hyena to be eaten was because it was an 
animal which changed its sex, being male one year 
and female the next, we do not feel bound to 
accept his startling zoology, or when we find in 
Josephus (Ant. viii. 2) that he had seen a Jew 
named Eleazar cure demonized people by putting 
a magic ring to their noses and drawing out 
the demons through their nostrils, and that at 
Eleazar 's command the demons would show that 
they had left the man by overturning a dish of 
water set on the ground a little distance away, we 
do not feel bound to assent that Josephus was 
right in his idea of what took place. All such 
stories are an indication to us of the ideas of the 



26 What Jesus Taught 

time, but they do not set a mold into which our 
ideas must be run. 

The Bible a literature, national and of groups. — 

The Bible is a literature, or more exactly two litera- 
tures, a larger and a smaller one. It is the liter- 
ature of a people first and then the literature of a 
distinct group among that people. The Old Testa- 
ment is the literature of a people, the New Testa- 
ment the literature of a group, the Christians. 
And in the Old Testament itself there are books 
that represent various groups and tendencies among 
the Hebrews, while in the New Testament as well 
careful students find various types of thinking 
represented. For example, one notices quite easily 
differences in thought and wording between the 
first three of the Gospels and the fourth, and 
between the Epistle of James and the Epistle to 
the Hebrews. 

Bible students made a long step forward when 
they began to think of the Bible as a literature, 
and to study it in the way that students of other 
literatures study theirs. They found the Bible 
then a more wonderful book than ever because 
they saw it was a book of life, that it grew out of life 
and reflected the events, laws, customs, and beliefs 
of the times when its various books were written. 
As it took its place among the world's great litera- 
tures it was seen to hold a place of supreme impor- 
tance, for although the customs and costumes and 



What the Bible Is 27 

the political and historical events in the back- 
ground, the religious ideas as well as the scientific 
concepts, are not those of the twentieth century, 
it yet enables us to reconstruct the history and 
thought of the Hebrew people and of the early 
Christians, while because of its numerous noble 
characters and its exalted moral teachings it has 
extraordinary influence in the formation and estab- 
lishment of character. 

The development of biblical ideas. — In Greek 
literature one can trace changes in ideas. For 
example, the later Greek philosophers felt dissatis- 
fied with the descriptions of the deities given in 
the writings of earlier times. Their more highly 
developed notions of what a god ought to be made 
some of the old mythological stories seem crude and 
immoral. They therefore tried to find ways of 
explaining the myths which would relieve this diffi- 
culty. In just the same way we find a development 
of the idea of what sort of being the Hebrew deity, 
Jehovah or Yahveh (no one knows now just how 
his name was pronounced), was. In the earlier 
literature we find descriptions of him which were 
offensive to later and more enlightened thinkers in 
Israel. The prophets denounce the priestly idea of 
God 's delight in sacrifices and ritual. We are able 
then to gather from the biblical literature not only 
here a fact of history and there a side light on social 
situations, but we can even trace the progress and 



28 What Jesus Taught 

change of ideas among the Hebrews as these are 
reflected in the Old Testament. 

Naturally, we cannot do this to such an extent 
in the case of the New Testament, for it grew up 
very rapidly and covered a much shorter space of 
time. While the Old Testament was at least 500 
(about 800-167 B.C.) years in taking its present 
form and covers a history of some 1,100 years 
(about 1300-167 B.C.), the New Testament was 
probably complete in a hundred years after 
its first book was written (about 54-150 a.d.), 
the history it narrates covering a period of no 
more than 150 years (about 4 B.C.- 150 a.d.). 
But even in the New Testament careful stu- 
dents trace a development of thought along some 
lines. 

Forms of literature in the Bible. — Literature 
takes many forms, for example, stories of ancient 
times made by the writing up of folklore told at first 
only by word of mouth, the writing of history, bas- 
ing it on traditions or on earlier records, the pre- 
serving of statistics, the stories of the lives and 
deeds of heroes, political and social pamphlets, 
important letters written by prominent men, poems 
and patriotic and religious songs, argument, ora- 
tory, philosophy, collections of wise saws and witty 
sayings, law books and books of instruction for 
priests, love stories, stories of hate, treachery, theft, 
murder, fables, dreams, stories of animals, ghosts, 



What the Bible Is 29 

witches, and the like, stories of war and famous 
battles and fights between heroes in single combat, 
sermons of great preachers and anecdotes about 
public men, and stories of poor boys who rose to 
greatness. All these types of literature can be 
found in the Bible. Even something like the detec- 
tive story is not lacking (see, for example, Joshua, 
chap. 7; I Kings 3: 16-28). 

How to read the Bible. — The Bible is best 
understood when it is read as other books, not a few 
lines at a time, but in long stretches, a whole book 
or division of a book at once. If one has an easy 
reading knowledge of some language besides Eng- 
lish it is always interesting to read some part of the 
Bible at least in that foreign language. But those 
whose mother-tongue was not English ought to 
read the Bible in English. It is best to read it in 
the American Standard Version, which is the best 
English translation. 

Resume of the books of the Old Testament. — 
The first six books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, 
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua 
form a connected narrative. Leviticus and Deuter- 
onomy are law books giving us Jewish legal enact- 
ments and religious ritual, but not carrying forward 
the story. Judges covers the next period, and tells 
the exploits of a dozen Jewish heroes, among them 
Samson, the Hebrew Hercules. Ruth is a pretty 
love story of the same period. When we come to 



30 What Jesus Taught 

I and II Samuel and I and II Kings, we are in one 
of the richest narrative portions of the Old Testa- 
ment. One story follows another in rapid succes- 
sion, and the characters are clear and bold. Here 
are Samuel, Eli, Elijah and Elisha, Saul, Jona- 
than, David, Absalom, Shimei, Ahithophel, Uriah, 
Nathan, Adonijah, Bathsheba, Solomon, Hiram, 
Ahab, Jezebel, Jehu, Naaman, Rabshakeh, Joab, 
Abishai, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and many 
others, each with some striking and interesting role 
to play upon the crowded stage. Next one should 
read Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. These books 
are more easily understood after one has read the 
ones just mentioned. Isaiah will have special 
charm for a person interested in the out-of-doors 
because of its great number of references to nature. 
In these books some of the finest passages of the 
Bible occur. Each book, we are to remember, has 
some historical situation that it fits into. They 
were not written with the idea of being read two or 
three thousand years later, but have reference to 
affairs going on at the time they were written. It is 
the same way with the group of twelve little books 
called the Minor Prophets. They cover, in general, 
about 785-330 B.C. 

In 586 b.c. Jerusalem was captured by the 
Babylonians, and the Jews were removed from 
Palestine and located in Babylonia. This period 
in Jewish history (586-537 B.C.) is called the 



What the Bible Is 31 

Exile. 1 The books of the Prophets, who were the 
nobler sort of statesmen and publicists of their time, 
were written before, during, and after the Exile. 
Some cannot yet be accurately dated. In fact, to 
determine the exact date of any book in the Bible is 
very difficult, and generally impossible. Usually the 
most that can be said is that a given book was prob- 
ably written about such and such a date. This, 
of course, does not impair the literary and religious 
value of the Bible. No one knows, for example, 
just when the Iliad and Odyssey were written, or 
whether it is quite certain that there was a poet 
Homer who put the ancient Greek sagas into writ- 
ten form, but that does not take away their value 
for us. 

There was a class of men among the Hebrews 
who were the schoolmasters and philosophers of 
Israel. They were called "wise men" and pro- 
duced a number of books called Books of Wisdom. 
Three of these wisdom books have been preserved 
in the Old Testament, viz., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, 
and Job. They are thoughtful, philosophical books 
with little of the story element in them. Psalms 
and Lamentations and the Song of Solomon are 
poems of religion, patriotism, and love. Esther is 
a story of the Persian period of the Exile, purport- 

1 Members of discussion groups often confuse the Exile with 
the Captivity in Egypt or with the Exodus, or with the forty 
years' wandering in the wilderness. The Exodus occurred 
about 1300 B.C. 



32 What Jesus Taught 

ing to give the origin of a Jewish festival, Purim, 
still observed by the Jews. I and II Chronicles is 
a one-sided history, based on Kings, with the parts 
referring to the Northern Kingdom left out. Ezra 
tells of the return of the Jews from Babylonia to 
Palestine about 537 B.C., and their rebuilding in 
520 B.C. of Solomon's temple, built in 970 B.C. and 
destroyed 586 B.C., while Nehemiah carries the 
story down to about 445 B.C., and tells of the 
rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem and of 
religious reforms. Nehemiah himself is one of the 
manliest characters in all the Old Testament. 
Daniel, it is thought, was written about 167 B.C. 
and is a veiled review of Jewish history, written in 
protest against the oppressions the Jews were suf- 
fering, and with a prediction of a time when Yahveh 
would make the Jewish nation the rulers over a 
world-empire, called the Kingdom of God. This 
helps us to understand what would be thought of 
when John the Baptist and Jesus began nearly two 
hundred years later to rouse the people with the 
assertion that the time had come for the setting up 
of the Kingdom of God. 

Old Testament Apocrypha. — In Bible-study dis- 
cussion groups the question often comes up about 
the books left out of our Protestant Bibles, but 
inserted in the Roman Catholic Bible, 1 and some- 
times in the large Bibles which lie on the pulpits 

1 The Douay version, made at Douay, in France, 1610. 



What the Bible Is 33 

in Protestant churches. There are fourteen of 
these books, and their names are I and II Esdras, 
Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of 
Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, Ba- 
ruch, Song of the Three Holy Children, Susannah, 
Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasseh, and I 
and II Maccabees. The title given to this collec- 
tion of books is the Apocrypha, a Greek word mean- 
ing " hidden." It is not known just why they were 
so called. They were not included in the Hebrew 
Old Testament, but are in the Greek translation of 
it called the Septuagint, made about 286-100 B.C. 

The Apocrypha do not contain as great a variety 
of literature as the Old Testament itself, but some 
of them are of great value and many very interest- 
ing. They furnish two examples of the Wisdom 
Literature, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wis- 
dom of Jesus the Son of Sirach. A copy of the 
Apocrypha is a thin book, costing about seventy- 
five cents. It is to be had in both the Authorized 
and the Revised Versions, the latter being prefer- 
able. 

Survey of the New Testament books. — A little 
over half of the New Testament consists of four 
gospels, 1 or partial biographies of Jesus, and the 
Acts of the Apostles, a book so called because it 
tells of the doings of the apostles. After the eighth 

1 A term derived from Old English godspel = God story or 
godspell = good story. 



34 What Jesus Taught 

chapter it is limited almost wholly to the adven- 
tures of the great early Christian missionary Paul, 
and his travels in Asia Minor, Greece, and else- 
where. The rest of the New Testament, except the 
last book, is made up of letters written by or 
ascribed to Paul and other prominent Christian 
leaders to churches and individuals. Some of 
these are genuine correspondence, others are epistles, 
or "open letters," where the writer adopts the form 
of a letter, but really addresses the public, that 
is, Christians in general. The last book, the Reve- 
lation, like Daniel in the Old Testament, is written 
in highly figurative language and is a protest and 
threat against the enemies of the Christians. 
Neither Daniel nor the book of Revelation has 
any value as showing a plan of the future. Their 
authors knew no more of what is going on in the 
world now than we know of what will be going on 
two thousand years hence. 

In the New Testament we find reflected the 
ideas, beliefs, and customs of the first Christians. 
Their notions of the cause and cure of disease, their 
beliefs that human beings had conversations with 
angels and demons, their faith that Jesus would 
soon descend from the sky and set up the world's 
judgment, their rites of baptism and the Eucharist, 
their ecstatic religious meetings, their agape or love 
feast, which sometimes degenerated into un-Chris- 
tian greed and drunkenness, all appear on the pages 



What the Bible Is 35 

of the New Testament. It preserves, too, the 
teaching of Jesus as this was told and retold by 
his followers. It shows also how Christianity, 
although it started as a little religious movement 
among the Jewish people, spread out westward from 
Palestine into Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy among 
non- Jewish peoples. This helps us to see how by 
313 A.D., in the time of the Roman emperor Con- 
stantine, Christianity began to be the strongest 
religion in the Roman Empire. If the books of the 
New Testament had not been preserved we should 
have no original source of information as to the 
beginnings of Christianity, for it was so obscure at 
first that we find very little said about it in the 
Greek and Roman and Jewish writers of that time. 1 
The New Testament Apocrypha. — There are 
also the so-called New Testament Apocrypha, con- 
sisting of books relating to Jesus and the Christian 
movement, but mainly of a later period, of little 
historical value, and not included in the New Testa- 
ment. There are about thirty of these books, their 
titles being as follows: the Protevangelium of 
James, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the Gospel 
of the Nativity of Mary, the History of Joseph the 
Carpenter, the Gospel of Thomas (in three forms, 
two Greek, one Latin), the Arabic Gospel of the 
Saviour's Infancy, the Gospel of'Nicodemus (con- 

1 The few references there are, are collected and discussed in 
Case, The Historicity of Jesus, pp. 238-70. 



7,6 What Jesus Taught 

sisting of the Acts of Pilate in two Greek and one 
Latin form and the Descent of Christ into Hell, in 
two Latin and one Greek form), the Letter of Pon- 
tius Pilate, the Report of Pilate, the Paradosis of 
Pilate, the Death of Pilate, the Narrative of Joseph, 
the Avenging of the Saviour, the Acts of Peter and 
Paul, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Acts of 
Barnabas, the Acts of Philip, the Acts of Philip in 
Hellas, the Acts of Andrew, the Acts of Andrew 
and Matthias, the Acts of Matthew, the Acts of 
Thomas, the Consummation of Thomas, the Mar- 
tyrdom of Bartholomew, the Acts of Thaddaeus, 
the Acts of John, the Apocalypse of Moses, the 
Apocalypse of Esdras, the Apocalypse of Paul, the 
Apocalypse of John, and the Assumption of Mary. 1 
In general in these books the miraculous element 
plays an even larger role than in the New Testa- 
ment, and the books purport to give information 
about things on which the New Testament itself is 
silent. Thus while in the New Testament little is 
told about the boyhood of Jesus, and no details are 
given of his life from eighteen to thirty years of age, 
in the apocryphal books of the New Testament 
numerous stories are told of Jesus' childhood; for 
example, of the wonderful things he did, of his mak- 
ing clay sparrows fly, of his stretching tables and 

1 These are collected and translated into English in the 
Ante-Nicene Fathers, VIII, 349-598. Other examples also are 
extant, such as the Gospel of Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter. 



What the Bible Is 37 

seats to the right size when Joseph, who was a poor 
workman, made them too small, of the mischief he 
played in a dyer 's shop and how he made the cloths 
all the right color after he had thrown them into 
the furnace, how he charmed a snake that had 
bitten a boy, and how he struck boys dead who did 
anything to displease him, and so on. The New 
Testament Apocrypha in general show the working 
of religious imagination, and our picture of Jesus 
has gained rather than lost by their omission from 
the New Testament. They are valuable in this 
that they throw light backward upon the New 
Testament by showing the credulity and miracle- 
making facility of the age. They show, too, the 
natural desire for information upon features of 
Jesus' life which the canonical gospels do not 
satisfy. Bible-students should acquaint them- 
selves with both the Apocrypha of the Old Testa- 
ment and those of the New. 

The Apostolic Fathers. — Of greater value than 
the New Testament Apocrypha is the little collec- 
tion of ten early Christian productions known as the 
Works of the Apostolic Fathers, or more briefly as 
the Apostolic Fathers. These are the First and 
Second Epistle of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, 
some fragments of the writings of Papias, the 
Epistle to Diognetus, the Epistle of Ignatius, the 
Epistle of Polycarp, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, 
the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Teaching of the 



38 What Jesus Taught 

Twelve Apostles. These are largely in the style of 
the New Testament and in them may be traced the 
progress of Christian thought, customs, and organ- 
ization in the second century. With the exception 
of a part of the Shepherd of Hermas, the works of 
the Apostolic Fathers were written in Greek. They 
are available, however, in English translation and 
should be read by all who wish to be acquainted 
with the whole field of early Christian literature. 1 
Recapitulation. — We have noted what is meant 
by the term literature; we have seen that the Bible 
is a literature; we have listed the various types of 
literature it contains; we have observed the main 
divisions into which it falls, and the periods covered ; 
we have seen that there is an apocryphal or non- 
canonical literature both of the Old and the New 
Testaments; we have discussed the interest and 
value of this Jewish and Christian literature out- 
side the Bible. The most helpful and far-reaching 
principle one can get hold of in regard to the Bible is 
that it is a literature, and as a literature it tells us 
what other people of other times have done and 
thought, but not what we must think and do. 
That is something we have to find out for ourselves. 
Always, to be sure, we are to remember that it has 
in it the highest and best in religious thought and in 

1 See the Ante-Nicene Fathers, I, 1-149. This collection 
covers the literature produced by Christianity during the period 
following the New Testament writers down to 325 a.d. Of this 
literature the Apostolic Fathers form a small part. 



What the Bible Is 39 

inspiring characters. Being a reflection of the life 
in which it arose, however, it has a considerable 
element that is not up to modern ideas in science or 
ideals in religion. It is to be used, therefore, dis- 
criminatingly and not with a blanket assumption 
of infallibility. 

Textual criticism. — The story of how the Bible 
was preserved, how it passed from one language 
into another, is one of fascinating interest. It is, 
of course, largely the same story as that of any 
ancient literature which has been preserved and 
translated so that we can read it now in English. 
The original, autograph manuscripts of Homer's 
Iliad, or of the works of Plato and Aristotle have 
been lost for centuries. So have those of the 
Psalmists and Isaiah, of the evangelists and Paul. 
Their works have been preserved by copying. The 
oldest manuscript of the New Testament is itself a 
copy made three or four hundred years after the 
books of the New Testament were written, and 
probably long after the original writings themselves 
had been lost or worn out. Thus we have no way 
of correcting the copies by the original. Scholars 
have, however, compared the manuscript copies 
with one another and by this means have deter- 
mined as exactly as possible what the original 
wording was. As old manuscripts have been found 
from time to time, they have been examined with 
minute care and compared with those already 



40 What Jesus Taught 

known. This study of ancient manuscripts is a 
science in itself. Its technical name is textual 
criticism, or the study of the text (for "criticism" 
means study), because its aim is to recover the 
original wording or text of the books of the Old 
and the New Testaments. Textual criticism is a 
science that deals not alone with the biblical books. 
There is a textual criticism of all ancient authors. 
The text of Caesar which is read in high school has 
been determined in the same way. 

Historical criticism. — In addition to textual 
criticism, or the study of the Hebrew and Greek 
texts of the Bible, there is historical criticism, which 
attempts to discover the history that lies back of 
the original writings themselves, and the motives 
that controlled their authors. About thirty years 
ago this kind of study was called " higher criticism, " 
to distinguish it from the lower or preparatory 
textual criticism. 1 We may say that it tries to 
trace the history of the books of the Bible higher, 
that is, beyond the words themselves to the situa- 
tion that called forth the book, to the author's 
motive in writing it, and to the source of the ideas 
reflected in the book. The term "higher criticism " 
is practically obsolete now, and is used generally 
only in a jocular way, or by those who are ignorant 
of it or hostile to it. The correct name of this 

1 Cf. Nash, A History of the Higher Criticism of the New 
Testament, pp. 12-13. 



What the Bible Is 41 

science is "the historical criticism [or study] of the 
Bible." Those who practice historical criticism 
are said to use the historical method. Upon these 
two sciences, textual criticism and historical criti- 
cism, has been based all the progress made in recent 
years in scientific Bible-study. Through them the 
field of religion is made one with the other fields of 
knowledge to which the various sciences are devoted 
and through them religion and the Bible are 
made more intelligible and tenable to a modern 
educated man. 

Sketch of the history of Bible translation. — The 
first translation of the Old Testament from its 
original Hebrew and Aramaic was made about 286- 
100 B.C., when it was translated into Greek. This 
version is called the Septuagint (Latin septuaginta, 
seventy) , because it was said to have been made by 
seventy translators. Next it was translated into 
Syriac, probably before the Christian Era. Then 
the Old and the New Testaments were both trans- 
lated into Latin and Coptic, the language of North- 
ern Africa. About 400 a.d. Jerome made a trans- 
lation of the whole Bible into Latin, basing his 
work on earlier translations into that language. 
Jerome's version is called the Vulgate, because it 
came into general use (Latin vulgus, the public). 
Various translations of the Bible into English were 
made before 161 1, when the King James Version 
was made. Much of the English in this is quaint 



42 What Jesus Taught 

and old-fashioned now; moreover, better Greek 
manuscripts have meanwhile been found, so that 
in 1 88 1 a revision was made by a company of Eng- 
lish and American scholars chosen for that task. 
The American Revised Version incorporates 
changes recommended by the American revisers 
and is probably the best version of the Bible in 
English yet made. 1 Of course the Bible has been 
translated into all other modern languages as well. 
The Bible's real value. — The dictaphone is a 
machine into which business men sometimes dic- 
tate their letters. After words have been spoken 
into it, it will faithfully reproduce the words any 
number of times. The Bible is like that. Into it 
the great souls of Israel and of early Christianity 
poured their message, and with allowance made for 
the vicissitudes of copying and editing, it faithfully 
repeats that message even yet. But the Bible has 
often been thought of as if it were itself the speaker 
and its readers were the dictaphone, so that what- 
ever it said they must say, whatever it thought 
they must think. The reader of the Bible is not a 
dictaphone to duplicate the thought processes of 
ages past, nor is he the stenographer who must copy 
what the dictaphone says: he is rather another 

1 A number of efforts have been made to improve upon 
this version, the latest being a version of the Old Testament 
issued by the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia. Other 
modern versions of the New Testament are Moffatt's, Wey- 
mouth's, and the Twentieth Century New Testament. 



What the Bible Is 43 

business man who must do his own thinking and 
speak his own message in the language and through 
the ideas of his own time. The principle that the 
Bible was given as a mold for the minds of men, 
though producing some good results, has wrought 
great damage to religion. It is the wedge that has 
caused every denominational split; it is used to 
justify the existence of every new sect. The hope 
of American Protestant Christianity is that people 
will finally become so clear as to realities and 
values that the spectacle of four churches in an 
American town of eight hundred inhabitants will 
be forever at an end. One great helping factor in 
the establishment of community churches in the 
place of denominational ones will be the recognition 
of the Bible as a literature, ancient, noble, inspiring, 
in many ways unsurpassed, but not to be thought 
of as intended to relieve us from the necessity of 
thinking for ourselves. To regard the Bible in 
that way is both to misuse it and to misunderstand 
the task God has set before us in the modern world. 



CHAPTER III 
THE WORLD JESUS LIVED IN 

A sketch of Palestine's history. — To modern 
Christians perhaps the most interesting thing about 
Palestine is that Jesus lived there. But besides 
this, it has a fascinating history. As early as 1600 
B.C. it was the home of peoples having an advanced 
civilization. Slowly conquered by the Hebrews, it 
came to be the fatherland of the Jew. In the course 
of centuries it has been swept again and again by 
battling armies. In 721 B.C. the northern division 
of the Hebrew kingdom, which had stood for over 
two hundred years, was conquered by the Assyr- 
ians, the capital, Samaria, destroyed, and the popu- 
lation, consisting of ten of the twelve tribes, 
deported to Mesopotamia. Interesting legends 
are told of these lost ten tribes, but no one knows 
what became of them. Probably they were 
absorbed by the Assyrians. The Southern King- 
dom stood for one hundred and thirty-five years 
more, but was finally captured in 586 B.C. by the 
Babylonians. In the siege the Temple, which had 
been built by Solomon about 930 B.C., was de- 
stroyed. The people were transplanted to Baby- 
lonia. Fifty years later, the Babylonian empire 
had fallen, and Cyrus, its conqueror, permitted the 

44 



The World Jesus Lived In 45 

Jews to return to Palestine. Many preferred to 
stay in Babylon, their new home, but enough 
returned to build the second Temple, and later to 
rebuild the city walls. The Jews now remained for 
about one hundred and twenty years subject to 
Persia. When Alexander the Great conquered the 
then known world, Palestine, in 332 B.C., became 
subject to Macedonia. Later it was controlled by 
Syria. From 175-63 B.C. it was an independent 
state with a government of its own. At the time 
of Jesus ' birth it had been for two generations sub- 
ject to Rome. The third Temple, built by Herod 
the Great (begun 20 B.C., but not completed till 
62 a.d.) had replaced the second Temple and is 
the one referred to occasionally in the New Testa- 
ment. It was destroyed in 70 a.d. at the capture of 
Jerusalem by Titus. 

Significance of Palestine. — Recent international 
events make it easier for us to see how Palestine 
could be thus passed around from one " power" to 
another. About 70 a.d. the Jews made a desperate 
revolt against Rome, but were defeated and Jeru- 
salem destroyed. In 135 a.d. under a leader named 
Bar-Cochba they again attempted to free them- 
selves from the Roman rule, but were completely 
crushed. When Rome had fallen and Mohammed- 
anism, originating in Arabia, was sweeping a large 
part of the Mediterranean world, Palestine came 
under a new master, the Turk. It remained in his 



46 What Jesus Taught 

power, with the exception of short periods during 
the Crusades, till 1918 when various parts of the 
country were captured by the British. 

Though Palestine has always been small, it has 
never been insignificant. Greece, too, is a little 
country, the size of West Virginia, but it has put 
into history such great names as Homer, Demos- 
thenes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pericles, and 
many others. Palestine, also, has bred men whose 
names are well known far beyond its confines, Moses, 
Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and many more. 

The life of Palestine as seen in the New Testa- 
ment. — It was in this little, alert, oriental state that 
had known so many political changes that Jesus 
was born. It is impressive to think that in reading 
the New Testament we are reading the translation 
of words that were written in and near that little 
country eighteen hundred years ago. It faithfully 
represents the life of Palestine in the time of Jesus, 
though not in detail, for the writers refer to 
political and social conditions only incidentally, as 
these bear on their message. Everywhere, how- 
ever, there is the background of Roman power, the 
emperor, the provincial governors, the soldiery, 
everywhere the Jewish religion, the Temple, the 
sects, Scribe and Pharisee, Sadducee, Essene, and 
Zealot, the curious Jewish customs and meticulous 
ceremonies, everywhere there is the open, out-door, 
sunny life of an oriental country. 



The World Jesus Lived In 47 

The world of Jesus. — But a man's world is made 
up, not of the whole complex of things about him, 
but of the things that seize his thought. What 
does not secure his attention does not exist for him, 
while the things on which his thought dwells, even 
though they have no external existence, are realities 
to him. 1 The influences that shape character may 
be classified under the headings of heredity, 
environment, and personal acts and decisions. 
Everything that affects a person's character and 
life come from one of these three. Often the last 
overcomes the other two, and a man who has been 
unfortunate in his birth or environment yet lives 
his life nobly. Environments vary and people 
react differently to the same environment. "Two 
men looked through prison bars; One saw mud, the 

1 Members of the discussion group should agree in advance 
upon the topic each will give attention to, and search the gospels 
to find instances. Thus one member may take the references to 
nature in Mark, another in Matthew, a third in Luke. In the 
same way search may be made for allusions to various kinds of 
work and business, etc., mentioned in the gospels. Remember the 
important thing is that we shall study deeply the New Testa- 
ment itself. It is the lasting literature. All commentaries and 
handbooks upon it have proved of comparatively temporary 
significance, but the New Testament has stood for centuries. 
The best help is one that piques our curiosity, provokes 
resistance, and leads us to examine the New Testament for our- 
selves. Do not imagine that because another person does not 
agree with you he is not helping you, or you him. You are each 
whetting the other's mind. Think hard, speak modestly but 
candidly, and above all, keep smiling. 



48 What Jesus Taught 

other stars." We propose to gather the hints 
scattered through the gospels as to what made up 
Jesus' environment, the world he lived in. We 
find references to show that his world was made 
up of: 

i. Nature: sea, mountains, birds, plants, 
flowers, lightning, storm. 

2. Family relationships: father, mother, broth- 
ers, sisters (there were nine in Jesus' family). 

3. Kinds of work and business: farming, fishing, 
clerical work, mercantile business, building, car- 
pentry, household work. 

4. Social classes: political officials, religious 
sects and teachers, soldiers, disciples, friends, 
enemies, rich men, beggars, the sick, women, the 
public. 

5. Religious institutions: the Mosaic Law, the 
Old Testament, the Sabbath, the Temple, syna- 
gogues. 

6. Social customs: meals, weddings, footwash- 
ing, feasts, slavery, divorce. 

7. Commonplace things: yeast, salt, lamps, 
sheep, dogs, donkeys, chickens, camels, insects, 
country, villages, cities, houses, a garden. 

8. Human experiences: war, debt, marriage, 
poverty, sickness, weariness, hunger, pain, death, 
mourning, burial. 

9. Supernatural agencies : angels, demons, Satan, 
God, miracles. 



The World Jesus Lived In 49 

Present-day thinking as regards supernatural 
evil agencies. — In the discussion of the ninth point, 
concerning the evidence as to angels, demons, and 
Satan, some questions always come up on which 
minds work differently. To many Christians 
angels, demons, and even Satan have become 
unreal. To refer epilepsy, or insanity, or loss of 
speech, or any other disease to demon-possession 
would seem to them a retrogression to the primitive 
ideas of savages who employ witch doctors to call 
forth the evil spirits from the sick. They do not 
feel the necessity of assuming the existence of these 
supernatural agencies as they do feel the necessity 
of assuming the existence of God. Observation, 
reading, education, reflection, and experience have 
led them to believe in God; they are not led to the 
same conclusion about angels, demons, and Satan. 
They are inclined to class these with other creatures 
of the imagination, for example, the Irish banshees, 
the Scotch fairies, the Puritan witches, the negro 
voodoo and "hants." They know that the belief 
in a thing, however vital it may have been to those 
who held that belief, is no proof that that thing ever 
actually existed. The ancient Greeks, for example, 
had a complex system of gods and goddesses with 
stories about them worked out in elaborate detail, 
yet no one believes now that a single one of those 
gods and goddesses ever existed outside the people 's 
imagination. Even the present-day Greeks them- 



50 What Jesus Taught 

selves, though they are proud of this wonderful 
past and its literature, do not think of Zeus, Hera, 
Heracles, Apollo, Aphrodite, and all the rest as 
having ever really existed. That is, they did not 
exist as the mountains, rivers, seas, etc., connected 
with their adventures existed. They were made 
by thinking, and they existed only in thought. 
Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher of the first century, 
remarks that things appear to our minds in four 
ways: 

i. They exist and appear to exist. 

2. They do not exist, and do not appear to exist. 

3. They exist, but do not appear to exist. 

4. They do not exist, but appear to exist. 
Many thoughtful and religious people would now 
put angels, demons, and Satan under number 2 
above, though they would acknowledge that for 
ancient peoples they belonged under number 4, and 
really seemed to them to belong under number 1. 

The view of early Christian times. — It is not 
difficult to find evidence outside the New Testa- 
ment as to what the Jewish people were thinking 
about demons in those days. Josephus was writ- 
ing his history about the same time the books of 
the New Testament were being written. In the 
following passage from the seventh book of his 
Jewish War he tells both what demons were and 
how people who had demons could be cured by the 
use of the root of a certain tree. He tells how the 



The World Jesus Lived In 51 

tree looked, how hard it was to get the root of it, 
what the power of the root was, and what demons 
themselves are, as follows: 

Its color is like to that of flame, and toward the evening 
it sends out a certain ray like lightning; it is not easily 
taken by such as would do it, but recedes from their hands, 
nor will yield itself to be taken quietly until either the urine 
of a woman, or blood, be poured upon it; nay, even then 
it is certain death to those that touch it, unless anyone 
take and hang the root itself down from his hand, and so 
carry it away. It may also be taken in another way with- 
out danger, which is this: they dig a trench quite round 
about it till the hidden part of the root be very small, they 
then tie a dog to it, and when the dog tries hard to follow 
him that tied him, this root is easily plucked up, but the 
dog dies immediately, as if it were instead of the man that 
would take the plant away; nor after this need anyone be 
afraid of taking it into his hands. Yet after all this pains 
in getting, it is only valuable on account of one virtue it 
hath, that if it be only brought to sick persons, it quickly 
drives away those called demons, which are no other than 
the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men that are 
alive and kill them unless they can obtain some help against 
them (War, vii. 6). 

Josephus also tells in his Antiquities of the Jews, 
Book viii, of Eleazar, a Jew, who cured those who 
had demons by means of a ring. He would put this 
ring to the sick man's nose and draw the demon 
out through his nostrils. In the same passage 
Josephus says that Solomon learned the science of 
casting out demons and that he composed incanta- 
tions to be used for that purpose. Some of the 



52 What Jesus Taught 

incantations thus used by Jewish exorcists have 
been preserved to the present day. 1 

Types of reaction to the topic "demons." — We 
who are loyal to Jesus Christ and wish to win men 
to his plan of life are bound to face the contrast 
between the large place which the gospels give to 
angels, demons, and Satan in the life of Jesus, and 
the small place which these commonly have in the 
lives of even his most cordial admirers today. 
Many young people have wished for light on this 
question which neither the sermon nor the Sunday 
school has given them. 

In discussion men generally sort out as follows: 

i. Some say that Jesus knew that demons, etc., 
did not exist. In his own mind he put them under 
number 2 of Epictetus' classification. But he 
knew that the people all about him did believe in 
them, and he accommodated himself to their views 
and spoke and acted as if he shared their belief. 

2. Some say that Jesus knew that demons, etc., 
did not exist, and he made no pretense at believing 
in them. All that the gospels tell us about him 
which would make us think he did, comes not from 
Jesus, but from the writers of the gospels. That 
is, they did believe in demons, etc., and they read 
back their own ideas into Jesus ' life and put into his 
mouth such words as they thought he would have 

1 For the text of one found in Africa dating from the third 
century see Blau, Das alt-jiidische Zauberwesen, pp. 97 ff. 



The World Jesus Lived In 53 

spoken and such deeds as they thought he would 
have done. 

3. Some say that Jesus actually did believe in 
demons, etc., that in this respect he shared the 
ideas of the people about him. Of those who hold 
this view there are two classes: (a) Those who 
themselves believe that demons, etc., actually 
exist, (b) Those who themselves do not believe 
that demons, etc., exist. 

Those who place themselves in class (a) usually 
do so because of a supposed loyalty to Jesus and 
the New Testament. Those who place themselves 
in class (b) feel that they are equally loyal to Jesus, 
and to the New Testament. They think that 
loyalty to Jesus does not involve a copying of all 
the details of his thought any more than it means a 
duplicating of his language or his dress. They 
hold that to be loyal to Jesus is to revere his charac- 
ter and live on his principle. 1 

Views about miracles. — It is much the same 
with the subject of miracles. Opinions will differ, 
and the leader and the members of the group should 
be prepared both to expect difference and to respect 
it. The conviction that the universe in all its parts 
acts and reacts in ways of unvarying regularity, 
which is a by-product of modern scientific educa- 
tion, has not yet reached by any means all persons. 

1 For fuller discussion see the author's article, "Did Jesus 
Believe in Demons?" Biblical World, July, 1920, pp. 371-77. 



54 What Jesus Taught 

There may be — and should be — some in the dis- 
cussion group who have not studied in high school 
or college and consequently have not had the incen- 
tive to readjustment. On the other hand, some 
who have had scientific training have not been led 
to see its implications, or have managed to keep 
their scientific and their religious thinking apart, 
in separate compartments of the brain, as it were, 
and so have not allowed their culture to modify 
their religious views. Others, again, have been 
systematically trained to suspicion and opposition 
to scientific views and imagine that their adoption 
means the loss of personal religion and the destruc- 
tion of Christianity. 

With such antecedent experiences, difference 
of opinion is inevitable. Some will say that no 
miracle ever happened. Others will argue that all 
things are possible with God. Others will reply 
that it is not a question of possibility, but one of 
probability. That God could interfere with the 
regular processes of nature in order to impress 
people with his power, or to increase the prestige of 
some religious leader, or to deliver his worshipers 
from danger or difficulty, or to relieve suffering or 
disability, they are willing to admit, but that he has 
ever done so, they regard as very improbable. 
They find it easier to explain the rise of the miracle 
narratives of the New Testament by attributing 
them to the creative religious imagination of the 



The World Jesus Lived In 55 

early Christian group than by supposing that they 
are in all respects sober statements of fact. Others 
will contend, as was held widely a century ago, that 
the miracles are a vital part of Christianity, being 
the God-given credentials of its divine origin 1 and 
making it separate from and superior to any other 
religion. Often, also, the attempt will be made to 
force the false alternative that one must either take 
the New Testament as a whole as wholly correct or 
discard it altogether. Still others will take a medi- 
ating position and hold that many of the miracles of 
Jesus are explainable on the supposition that Jesus 
was a powerful hypnotist, himself probably of com- 
manding presence and robust health. To such a 
man, in addition a popular religious hero, many of 
the gospel miracles would be possible. Healers of 
this type appear frequently. Perhaps some mem- 
bers of the group will know of one or more. More- 
over, the cures effected by visits to relics and 
shrines, like the church of St. Anne de Beau Pre in 
Canada, are a proof of the effects that can be 
wrought by purely psychological means. To 
explain the miracles that lie beyond this type, such 
as the walking on the water, the feeding of the five 
thousand, and the raising of the dead, it is assumed 
that the story is an outgrowth of some incident, or 
of some teaching of Jesus, exaggerated by pious 

1 As was argued elaborately by William Paley (i 743-1805) 
in his famous book The Evidences of the Christian Religion, 



56 What Jesus Taught 

fancy, as it was told and retold, into the statement 
as it now stands in the gospels. 

The discussion group's essential. — A view to 
which all will agree is not likely to come out of the 
discussion of this topic. But unanimity of opinion 
is by no means so desirable as is often supposed. It 
may in fact be a hindrance to progress. What is 
desirable in the discussion group is candor, cour- 
tesy, free expression, good temper, a willingness to 
see all sides of a problem, and respect for those who 
differ from us. Above all, we should beware of 
regarding a person whose opinion on these points 
differs from ours as not a Christian. Even on 
points like these equally good Christian people 
differ. This in itself shows that it is a matter of 
opinion, not of character. Moreover, our task as 
a discussion group is not to get people to hold 
opinions that duplicate our own, but to strengthen 
good character through the clearing up of our own 
thinking, the sharing of information, participation 
in discussion, and the learning of the opinions of 
others. We are to remember that as a rule people 
think what they have been taught to think. Your 
teaching has been different from another 's, and you 
think differently. 

People: a factor in Jesus' world. — Though 
Jesus ' thought world contained these supernatural 
agencies of evil which are not now a part of normal 
experience, it contained two other factors that are 



The World Jesus Lived In 57 

real to us, men and God. He was not a hermit as 
many of his followers have been; he went about 
freely among men, sharing his message generously, 
entering heartily into their life. Notice how rarely 
you read of Jesus being alone. Notice how he 
says in Matt. 11:19 and Luke 7:34 that his free 
and easy way of living had been contrasted unfavor- 
ably with John the Baptist's strictness. Jesus has 
been claimed as a great democrat, as a labor agita- 
tor, as a socialist, as a religious revolutionist, but it 
is always something that has to do with men. 
Jesus was a mixer. He was always interested in 
men, and it was a genuine, not a professional, inter- 
est. Have you never met the professional hand- 
shake, with its gentle pull to get you out of the way, 
the professional smile, the professional small talk 
with its obvious "put on"? As Christians we 
must have a genuine affection for others. Dis- 
interested interest is one of the last products of 
religion. Under the influence of a hypnotic evan- 
gelist people have often been wrought into a frenzy 
of anxiety over others. But such things are tran- 
sient by-products. The grand effect of the Chris- 
tian religion is to make us interested in people, not 
because they are possible converts to our coterie, 
but because they are people. When biblical 
scholarship reaches its higher stages it ceases to be 
denominational; and when religion reaches its 
higher stages it ceases to be sectarian. Its interests 



58 What Jesus Taught 

are no longer ecclesiastical, they are human. 
Every act of kindness to man or beast is true reli- 
gion, and every time one human being helps 
another he has that far followed Christ. 

God: the supreme person in Jesus' world. — 
The last, greatest factor of Jesus' world was God. 
We cannot enter into the inner shrine of Jesus' 
devotional life as we can with some others. He 
left no elaborate descriptions of religious raptures 
such as were written by Madam Guyon, Samuel 
Rutherford, Jonathan Edwards, and others of the 
mystics. Jesus left no detailed statement of his 
doctrine of God such as were formed by the creed- 
making councils of the fourth century, and by 
Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and others who have 
drawn up systems of theology. But the gospels 
show that Jesus lived with God, and we gather that 
it was from this fact that his life gained its peculiar 
projective power. We of today have the same 
chance to live our lives with God. It will not make 
another Jesus of everyone to keep the morning 
watch, and read the New Testament daily, and 
think often about God, but it will connect one with 
the source of power Jesus employed. It will add a 
subtle sympathy and grasp of situations, a freedom 
from fear, a hold on one's self; it will make one 
master in circumstances one can control, and keep 
one 's nerve unshaken where control is not in one 's 
power. 



The World Jesus Lived In 59 

God in our world. — There is reason to believe 
that we live enveloped by a power that is constantly 
willing us good. Experience has shown us over 
and over again that this power has brought to us 
better things than we had planned. Disappoint- 
ment, chagrin, temporary defeat, uncertainty, sick- 
ness, sorrow, poverty, wounds, disablements, always 
bring their after-proofs that God is good. Time 
and again we have seen men in moments of 
indecision and depression, not able to see the way 
out, and they came off better than they had 
expected. These things teach us that God can be 
depended upon. Before a man has learned to 
swim, when he is told that the water will hold him 
up, he doubts it, but when he has learned, he tells 
others the same thing. Before, he had thought of 
water as an uncertain, dangerous element, whose 
function was to let people sink, now he thinks of it 
as a steady, dependable element, whose function is 
to delight and refresh people and sustain them from 
sinking. God is like water, air, always dependable, 
always there. We live at our best when we build 
our days with him. Reliance on self is a wonderful 
quality — reliance on God is, too. Consider Isa. 
50:10, "He that walketh in darkness and hath no 
light, let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and rely 
upon his God." Jesus knew, as any man may 
learn, that God can be relied upon. We cannot 
make him our slave or wheedle him into giving us 



60 What Jesus Taught 

what we want for the asking, but we can know that 
he is always all about us steadily willing that the 
right shall win, always wishing us the best. God 
will not make the world right, but he will help us 
make it right. He will not give us without our effort 
days free from sin, but he will help us in our fight 
for such days. God helps men to help themselves, 
and he who fails to take God into his life loses much 
of joy and power. 

We have considered the world Jesus lived in as 
to its historical setting and its constituent elements. 
We have noted its similarities to and its difference 
from our own. By this day's discussion we 
approach a step nearer to Jesus as he was and gain 
an added inspiration to repeat his sort of life in the 
world we live in. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE IMPORTANCE AND THE DIFFICULTY OF 
KNOWING WHAT JESUS TAUGHT 

Three reasons for its importance. — Historically, 
personally, and for purposes of propaganda, the 
recovering of the teaching of Jesus is important. 
Historically, for the whole Christian movement 
began with him, and his ideas. Though there are 
now some five hundred millions of Christians in 
the world, there was a time when Christianity lay 
like a seed germ in the thought of one man. 
Personally, for to bring our own minds into con- 
tact with the original, powerful ideas of Jesus 
ought to produce in us something of the same 
enthusiasm and devotion which they produced in 
the case of his disciples, and develop in us the 
same type of life Jesus himself lived. For pur- 
poses of propaganda, because it always helps to 
carry conviction if we are able to quote some great 
leader such as Lincoln or Roosevelt or Washington 
in support of what we say. Much more so in 
religious matters, if a man is able to say upon any 
subject, "This was Jesus' idea, this is what Jesus 
taught." He has something which not only 
strengthens conviction within himself, but often 
carries it with others. 

61 



62 What Jesus Taught 

general difficulty: the necessity of 
using a book 

But, though the recovering of Jesus' precise 
teaching is important, it is not easy. Thought is 
sometimes not understood or is misunderstood even 
when it is put in spoken words, with the expres- 
sions of the face and the inflections of the voice to 
help make it clear. The gospels state more than 
once (Mark 9:32; Luke 2:50; John 10:6; 12:6; 
Matt. 15:15; Mark 4:10; search will find other 
passages also) that Jesus' own disciples, and even 
his own parents, sometimes failed to get his mean- 
ing. But when the helps of voice, and gesture, and 
eye, and face are gone, and we must dig out a man 's 
thought from words in a book, the danger of mis- 
understanding him is even greater. 

SPECIAL DIFFICULTIES 

Moreover, in the task of restating what Jesus 
taught we have to work against a number of special 
difficulties. 

1. Meager source material. — There is the com- 
parative scarcity of source material. Jesus him- 
self, so far as we know, wrote nothing. Though 
an enormous number of books have been written 
about Jesus, we have practically only four, the 
gospels, that give us any original information con- 
cerning him. But these four are very small books. 
Mark has only 16 chapters, Matthew 28, Luke 24, 



Knowing What Jesus Taught 63 

John 21. Printed in a newspaper they would 
altogether cover only eight pages. (The whole 
New Testament would cover only eighteen pages.) 

An even closer limitation is necessary. The 
first three gospels are much alike, while the fourth, 
John, stands in a class by itself. The difference 
between it and the others is so great that in restat- 
ing Jesus ' thought it is best not to try to combine 
it with the others, but to study it separately. In 
these discussions we shall stick generally to the 
gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, leaving the 
thought of Jesus as represented in the Fourth Gos- 
pel to be taken up at some other time. 

We must shorten the diameter of our circle 
again, for the three gospels, Mark, Matthew, Luke, 
give only a part of their space to recording what 
Jesus taught. They give a good deal of it to what 
Jesus did, what other people thought about Jesus, 
and what they did to him. The great events in the 
life of Jesus with which we are most familiar are 
not teaching, but action. Underscore in Mark 
every word assigned to Jesus, and you can read 
them all without hurry in twenty-two minutes. 
The scantiness of original material regarding Jesus ' 
teaching becomes more impressive when one thinks 
of the abundance we have for studying that of other 
men of that general period. Josephus wrote two 
works, each larger, not only than the four gospels, 
but larger than the whole New Testament; Philo 



64 What Jesus Taught 

had written even more fully; Seneca in Latin and 
Arrian's report of the teaching of Epictetus in 
Greek are larger than our sources for the teaching 
of Jesus. Plutarch is larger still, while Galen, a 
Greek physician born a century after Jesus ' death, 
has left us twenty fat volumes. It is evident that 
in our study of the thought of Jesus we must reckon 
upon an extraordinary shortage of material. 

2. His teaching not in English. — Jesus taught 
in a language which to us is foreign. People do 
not always think of this, especially when they are 
stickling for some particular word or phrase in the 
English New Testament. Jesus did not speak 
English. There is a story told of an old woman 
who refused to read the Bible except in the King 
James Version, because, she said, "What was good 
enough for the Apostle Paul is good enough for me." 
But tell this story in almost any group and you will 
see a number of puzzled faces. That means that a 
number have not seen the point, for they have 
never thought that Paul did not speak English, and 
that the King James translation was not made for 
more than 1,500 years after Paul's time. In the 
same way men often do not think that Jesus spoke 
his own language, not ours. 

3. His teaching not in Greek. — Jesus spoke in a 
language different from that in which the gospels 
are written. He spoke in Aramaic, but the gospels, 
as well as all the other books of the New Testament, 



Knowing What Jesus Taught 65 

are written in Greek. This means that even in 
the original gospels we have not the actual words 
Jesus used. The scholar reads them at second- 
hand, and when we read our English New Testa- 
ment we read them at third-hand after they have 
passed through two translations. This, of course, 
does not necessarily detract from their value, but it 
is a fact we ought not to ignore. 

4. The report colored by doctrinal considera- 
tions. — The gospels give us not merely the teaching 
of Jesus, but the teaching about Jesus, that is, they 
represent the belief of the early church about him. 
Into this belief by the time the gospels were written, 
forty to seventy years after Jesus' death, many 
miraculous and legendary elements had entered. 
The gospel stories advance regularly from simplicity 
to complexity. Matthew and Luke add features 
that are not included in Mark's earlier gospel. 

5. The interweaving of documents. — The diffi- 
culty in recovering the exact teaching of Jesus is 
increased by the composite make-up of the gospels. 
Matthew and Luke used Mark; they used several 
other documents as well. Scholars have worked 
patiently for a hundred years on the literary rela- 
tionships of the gospels to each other and to their 
sources. One of the best studies finds not less 
than eight documents to have been used. 1 To sort 

1 Professor Ernest De Witt Burton's Some Principles of 
Literary Criticism and Their Application to the Synoptic Problem. 



66 What Jesus Taught 

out the teaching of Jesus in its earliest form is 
not easy. 

6. Traditional religious ideas. — Ideas and 
phrases connected with Jesus absorbed from others 
often make it difficult for us to think clearly about 
him. Just as there was a certain picture of Jesus 
current among the Christians when the New Testa- 
ment was being written, so there was a certain con- 
ception of him current in the group in which we 
grew up, or in which we have lived and studied. 
This conception will affect our idea of what Jesus' 
teaching was. Some men in discussion will assert 
that Jesus knew all about the Great War, or that he 
understood the mechanism of aeroplanes, others 
will think he did not know such things. Do not 
let the views you are familiar with keep you from a 
fair-minded attempt to rediscover Jesus for your- 
self. 

7. Antiquity. — The immense distance in time 
that separates us from Jesus makes it difficult for 
us to get hold of exactly what he taught. Many 
people are not accustomed to think over long 
spaces. Back of the period of their own lives and 
those of their father's or grandfather's, all dates, 
events, and characters telescope into an uncertain 
perspective. This is especially true of Bible char- 
acters and events. Was Moses before or after the 
Flood? Who lived first, Elijah or Methusaleh? 
It is not easy to realize that between us and Jesus 



Knowing What Jesus Taught 67 

lie nineteen centuries. Into our thought of Jesus 
there sift down bits of all that men have thought 
about him in all that time. Much of that thought 
was not based upon unbiased study of his teaching. 
Within the last few years students of the Bible have 
been paying more attention to Jesus himself, and 
what he taught, than for ages before. They are 
saying, like the Greeks in the twelfth chapter of 
John, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Heretofore they 
have had held up to them a church, or a belief, or 
Paul, or even a sickly, anemic, dehumanized por- 
trait of Christ. Now they want to know Jesus as 
he was. That is the spirit of these discussions. 
There must have been a tremendous drive about 
Jesus to have set such a movement going. There 
must have been in his thought a revolutionary force. 
It is that which we want to discover. Jesus has 
often been pragmatized, that is, his sanction has 
been claimed for various modern ideas. An appeal 
to one's conscience to say what ought to be done 
under given circumstances has been masked under 
the question, "What would Jesus do?" When 
thought out clearly, this question is seen to mean, 
"What will I do, if I do right ? " In our study of 
Jesus' teaching, we shall seek to find only what is 
there. 

Summary. — We have enumerated the factors 
that make a recovery of Jesus' teaching difficult. 
He spoke a foreign language; his teaching as it 



68 What Jesus Taught 

stands in the gospels is already a translation; the 
writers have the early church view, which they are 
anxious to preserve and propagate; the gospels 
are not simple, straightaway compositions, but 
are made by putting together source documents; 
our traditional conceptions, and the immense space 
of time that separates us from Jesus, all com- 
bine to increase the difficulty of restating what he 
taught. 

POSSIBILITY AND METHOD OF KNOWING WHAT 
JESUS TAUGHT 

But to acknowledge the difficulty is not to deny 
the possibility. Anyone who can read the gospels 
can get a fair idea of what Jesus stood for. More- 
over, in the gospels he has all there is to know. 
Nobody has any more. If anyone wishes to know 
what Jesus taught, he has only to read what he 
said, use his own mind, and put two and two 
together. He may make mistakes, but there is no 
other way to get ahead. The sooner a man learns 
that he has to make his own religion, do his own 
thinking, the better. Progress is made by thinking 
hard, discussing candidly and kindly, and trying 
out our ideas in experience. Nothing exists by 
divine right, but by right of its proved value in 
human life. We are anxious to know what Jesus 
thought even, not because it will excuse us from 
thinking for ourselves, but because it will stimulate 
and help us in our thinking. More important than 



Knowing What Jesus Taught 69 

Jesus' thought is Jesus' spirit, his type of living. 
But back of a man's acts are his thoughts, and in 
finding what Jesus taught, difficult though the 
task is, we shall find the secret of his " wonderful 
way of living." 

VARIOUS APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF 
JESUS ' TEACHING 

As people have studied the Bible in general from 
different motives, so their ways of approach to the 
study of the character and teaching of Jesus have 
been different. Some of these may here be gathered 
together. 

1. The theological approach. — Some come with 
an elaborately worked out scheme of theology, 
which they have taken over bodily from the past. 
They know in detail the whole of God 's plan for the 
human race from Adam to the day of judgment. 
In this scheme Jesus has his place. Their study of 
the gospels is likely to be directed toward fitting 
the gospel statements into this highly artificial sys- 
tem. Coupled with this there is likely to be a 
theory as to the character of the gospels themselves 
which makes any free inquiry impossible. More- 
over, the teaching of Jesus is largely ignored because 
of its inadaptability as theological material. In 
many of the things that commonly have interested 
Christian theologians Jesus was not interested, or 
at least we have no record of his talk about them. 
Consequently those who approach the study of 



70 What Jesus Taught 

Jesus with a theological interest are much more 
likely to emphasize his death than his life, and to 
substitute their own or their denomination 's teach- 
ing about Jesus for the things he is reported actually 
to have said. The study of Jesus' own teaching 
reveals the astonishing fact that almost without 
exception every link in the chain of the so-called 
"plan of salvation " is missing. Where did men get 
their idea that in the beginning God created a per- 
fect human pair, that they sinned and somehow 
made all their descendants sinners, that to offset 
this God sent Jesus to die, so that men might be 
forgiven? Not from Jesus! The things we hear 
in church and evangelistic services are mainly 
things that Jesus never speaks of. 

2. The historical approach. — Here the student 
attacks the study of Jesus' life and teaching as a 
historical problem. He applies the same reasoning 
he would apply in any other case. He tries to 
ascertain precisely what Jesus taught, as well as 
when he lived and what he did. He seeks only to 
learn the facts. From his findings opinions may 
be drawn, but that is not his task. He is to exam- 
ine critically and report faithfully what he finds. 
Within the last century this approach has been used 
more and more, and to its use has been due the 
progress made in Bible-study. From it arises the 
next method of approach, that which is presup- 
posed in these discussions. 



Knowing What Jesus Taught 71 

3. The practical approach. — Here we study 
Jesus and his teaching to find what were the power- 
ful factors in his life. We want to see how he met 
his problems, how he worked out his principle of 
action, what his controlling ideas were, how he 
backed them up with his life. Then we shall under- 
stand what it was that gave him his great power, 
and we shall go out with enthusiasm to live on his 
plan, with faith that it is truly through him that 
we, ourselves, and all the world are to be saved. 



CHAPTER V 
WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT CIVILIZATION 

The meaning of "civilization." — The term civili- 
zation, as we commonly use it, means the sum total 
of the phenomena of a nation's life at any given 
period. Civilization includes a nation's govern- 
ment, its industries, its education, its popular cus- 
toms and beliefs. In short a nation's civilization 
is the way that nation lives. Thus we speak of the 
ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, and Crete, 
of Etruria, Greece, and Rome, meaning thereby all 
that these ancient peoples were accustomed to do 
and think. Civilizations of different nations differ, 
and the civilization of the same nation differs at 
different times. We think of the civilization of 
colonial days in the United States as marked 
by spinning wheels, backlogs, flint-lock muskets, 
Indian fighting, witchcraft, stagecoaches, cold 
meetinghouses, long sermons, blue laws, and Cal- 
vinistic theology. A catalogue of the marks of 
American civilization at present would be very 
different. 

The making of civilization. — The result of the 
interaction of a nation 's civilization and its natural 
genius is the national character. The elements of 
heredity, environment, and personal decision make 

72 



About Civilization 73 

nations, just as they make men. Consider, for 
example, how a nation's life is affected by geog- 
raphy, climate, and the civilization of surrounding 
nations. Put new factors into a nation's life, and 
you change its civilization and ultimately its char- 
acter. Herein lies the great responsibility of the 
men who make the laws, who decide the subjects to 
be taught in schools and colleges, who shape the 
policies of corporations, newspapers, lodges, denom- 
inations, and influential organizations of every 
kind. Think how one decision of the government, 
one command of an officer, may change lives. The 
future of a family, a community, a county, a state, 
a nation may be altered by a single decision. But 
while it is interesting to think of the heavy respon- 
sibility that some carry, there is no one of sound 
mind who is free from it. We are all makers of 
civilization. The future depends upon everyone's 
doing his part. 

Marks of an ideal civilization. — Pool ideas in 
the discussion group as to what the characteristics 
of a perfect civilization would be. Every member 
can furnish at least ten. From the different sug- 
gestions a list of thirty or more items will emerge. 
Many of these will be a direct outgrowth of some 
one of the principles of Jesus. For example, among 
others in discussion groups conducted by the 
author, there have been mentioned democratic 
government, compulsory, universal, free education, 



74 What Jesus Taught 

elimination of child labor, abolition of saloons, 
equal suffrage, simplification of court procedure, 
profit sharing, separation of church and state, san- 
itation, doing away with sweatshops and unhealthy 
tenements, church union, and the prevalence every- 
where of the spirit of kindliness, human interest, 
reverence for God and the significance of human life. 

The civilization of Jesus' time. — Jesus lived in 
the midst of a civilization which was Jewish with 
an admixture of elements from two of the greatest 
civilizations of antiquity, Greece and Rome, whose 
institutions, history, language, and literature 
furnish a large part of the materials of education. 
His was one of the "little peoples'' and had been 
handed about from one "power" to another. It 
had been influenced by all, but had kept its own 
character, as the Jews have even to this day, when 
the "powers" that bandied them about have all 
crumbled into dust. Was Jesus satisfied with the 
civilization of his time ? Or did he see the vision of 
a different and better one ? 

Jesus' ideal of civilization: the Kingdom of 
God. — As it stands in the Synoptic Gospels, a large 
part of Jesus' teaching was about a civilization 
whose type we shall discover gradually as we go on. 
In naming this civilization Jesus used a term 
already in use and familiar to his hearers. He 
called it the "Kingdom of God." In the first 
three gospels he mentions it directly over one hun- 



About Civilization 75 

dred times. He would tell some story, using things, 
events, and people familiar to his hearers, some- 
times leaving them to draw their own conclusions, 
sometimes showing how the story was like some 
feature of the new civilization. In this way he 
described its rise and growth, the character of the 
Kingdom-people, and the way the Kingdom was 
finally to be set up in the world. We shall read 
Mark, Matthew, and Luke through and see how 
often Jesus referred to the Kingdom and how we 
can gather from what he said what his thought 
about it was. 

Method to be followed in studying Jesus* ideal 
civilization. — In discovering what Jesus taught 
upon the subjects we shall study, our plan of pro- 
cedure will be as follows: 

1. To search through the Gospel of Mark for 
material on the topic under discussion. 

2. To reduce the material found to summary 
statements in our own words. 

3. To assemble these in a composite statement 
which shall give us the total teaching of Jesus on 
the topic as that teaching is recorded by Mark. 

4. To apply the same processes to Matthew 
and Luke. 

5. To combine these three composite statements 
into a final one, which will put before us Jesus' 
entire teaching on the subject in hand as the Synop- 
tic Gospels present it. 



76 What Jesus Taught 

This method has certain faults, but also certain 
advantages, and these advantages, it is believed, 
justify its adoption: 

a) It is simple. Where this form of Bible- 
study has been used it has been quickly grasped 
and has been followed with keen interest, because 
the student understood at once how to go to work. 

b) It is heuristic. No type of teaching is more 
enjoyable than that which allows us to discover 
things for ourselves, under competent guidance. 
The heuristic method is an approved pedagogical 
device. 

c) It is thoroughgoing. By setting a group of 
alert minds at work searching a single gospel for 
material on a single topic, the chances of omission 
of any pertinent material are reduced. 

d) It is convincing. Instead of employing 
selected passages to support a claim — which is a 
familiar method, but which leaves one with a query 
as to whether there may not have been some omis- 
sion of adverse passages — this plan brings every 
available bit of evidence into the argument and 
leaves the investigator with a sense of sureness 
and completeness of grasp of the material. 

e) It is the natural method. The way which 
would occur to anyone who wished to find what a 
given book said on a given subject would be to read 
the book and make note of its statements regarding 
the subject in which he was interested. It applies, 



About Civilization 77 

then, to the gospels a method which one would 
naturally apply to any other book. 

/) It is a method whose use requires no special 
training. Inasmuch as discussion groups are made 
up of persons who in many cases have no experience 
in the critical processes employed by biblical 
scholarship, this method commends itself because 
any intelligent person can use it profitably, regard- 
less of his previous lack of training. Of course, the 
keener minded the student is, the more he will be 
able to profit by its use. 

To some the plan adopted may seem objection- 
able because it takes an uncritical attitude and 
reckons as correctly representing Jesus whatever 
the gospels studied record him as teaching. On 
this basis some things have to be attributed to 
Jesus which one would rather charge to someone 
else's account. One would naturally hesitate to 
attribute to Jesus anything that would seem unwor- 
thy of him, even though one were to find such dis- 
creditable statements in the gospels themselves. 1 

1 For examples of statements which may be so considered, 
see Mark 4:12, the use of parables to obscure his teaching; 7: 27, 
race prejudice; 7:33 and 8:23, hocus pocus; 9:29 and many 
other passages throughout the gospels, belief in demons; 11:13, 
14, petulance; 12: 26-27, rabbinical reasoning; 9 : 1 and parallels, 
mistaken expectation; chap. 13, Matthew, chap. 24, Luke, chap. 
21, apocalypticism; Matt. 10:5, limitation of the disciples to 
work among Jews; n: 11, overstatement; 16:19, conferring of 
priestly powers; 19 : 28, Luke 23 : 30, sharing in crude apocalyptic 
ideas; 18:19; 21:21-22, fanatical religious views. 



78 What Jesus Taught 

New Testament scholars have found various ways 
of meeting this difficulty : 

a) One is, adopting Matthew Arnold's famous 
epigram, "Jesus stands head and shoulders above 
his reporters," to ascribe to Jesus such of his teach- 
ing as we conceive could have come from no one 
else. All the rest is negligible, as representing only 
the mistaken notions of the "reporters." Obvi- 
ously this is to introduce a wholly subjective criti- 
cism. By it one does not square one's conception 
of Jesus by the gospels, but squares the gospels to 
the conception of Jesus which one already has. 
Such a plan would not be a fair or satisfactory one 
to adopt with a discussion group. 

b) Another method is to separate, by a process 
of literary analysis, the Synoptic Gospels into the 
several documents of which they are composed, 
thus making comparison and relative dating pos- 
sible. By this means Jesus may be relieved, for 
example, of some of the material which ascribes 
to him apocalyptic ideas, such as, e.g., that the 
Kingdom was to be established within a generation 
by his own return from the sky, accompanied by 
thousands of angels, the setting up of a day of 
universal judgment, when he and the Twelve would 
arbitrate the eternal destiny of all humanity, they 
judging the Jews (Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30) and 
he the Gentiles (Matt. 25:32), and that a part of 
the Kingdom joy would be in eating and drinking 



About Civilization 79 

(Luke 22 129-30; 22:18; Mark 14:25; Matt. 26:29). 
These ideas correspond so closely to what we know 
from other parts of the New Testament were the 
notions prevalent in the primitive church that it is 
not unreasonable to suppose that there may have 
been on the part of the gospel writers an uncon- 
scious coloring of the purely spiritual teachings of 
Jesus with these cruder conceptions brought over 
from previous Jewish messianic expectations. If 
one is able by analysis to distinguish gospel docu- 
ments which attribute to Jesus a religious and 
ethical message free from apocalyptic corruption, 
this supposition becomes the more probable. The 
reason for not adopting this method in the present 
studies is that most of those for whom they are 
intended are not versed in the niceties of synoptic 
criticism. Moreover unanimity of opinion on these 
points is lacking among those who are. For our 
purpose, therefore, a more rough-and-ready method 
seems preferable. 

Moreover, it is not impossible that the gospels 
are correct in their representations of Jesus ' teach- 
ing. Though it is a bold suggestion, it is not an 
incredible one that Jesus may have done his epoch- 
making thinking inside, so to speak, an apocalyptic 
framework. It is inevitable that every thinker 
should adopt certain assumptions, either devising 
them for himself or adopting or modifying those 
have that previously been held or are current in his 



80 What Jesus Taught 

day. As a rule, these assumptions come out of the 
thinker's environment, being furnished by the move- 
ment of which he is a part. To him and to those 
directly influenced by him these ideas are likely 
to seem unquestionable. The value of his contribu- 
tion to world-life is not, however, dependent on their 
being so. Even with assumptions that are later dis- 
proved, a system of thought may be erected that 
contains invaluable elements of beauty and truth. 
In connection with Jesus' teaching about the 
Kingdom we encounter some of the passages most 
difficult to reconcile with our traditional concep- 
tions of him, or with other statements of the gospels. 
But in it, too, we find some of the completest of his 
delineations of ideal character and life. In our 
gathering of the material which the gospels give we 
shall omit nothing, but if our discussion is to be of 
the most value we shall need to emphasize not so 
much the apocalyptic framework, which after all 
corresponds to the mason 's scaffolding, as the noble 
and inspiring teachings that are built up along 
with it. 

THE TEACHING IN MARK 

Summary of Mark's report. — In Mark, Jesus 
speaks directly of the Kingdom of God thirteen 
times. The passages are as follows: 1:15; 4:11, 
26,30; 9:1, 47; 10:14, 15, 23,24, 25; 12:34514:25. 
These passages show that Jesus thought that the 
new civilization had had to wait until a certain 



About Civilization 8i 

time before it would be set up, but that the time 
had now arrived (i : 15). He regarded himself and 
his disciples as having a special understanding of 
the Kingdom which outsiders did not share (4:11). 
The Kingdom is to grow, grow mysteriously, and 
have a sudden, spectacular climax (4:26). It will 
begin in a small way, but increase to gigantic size 
(4:30). The sudden, spectacular climax Jesus 
thinks of as coming within a few years (9:1). To win 
membership in the Kingdom one should be willing 
to sacrifice a hand or an eye. Those who do not get 
into the Kingdom go into the discard (Gehenna 
was the city dump) (9:47). The Kingdom-people 
are simple, unaffected, natural (10:14, 15). Rich 
men have a hard time to get into the Kingdom 
at all. Note how surprised the disciples are. They 
were used to thinking, like us, that a rich man can 
have anything he wants! (10:23, 24, 25.) To a 
man who saw that simple love to God and man is 
more than religious pomp and ceremony, Jesus 
said, "You are not far from the Kingdom." How- 
ever, though evidently such simple love was to be 
the religion of the Kingdom, Jesus demanded more 
than that a man agree with his ideas in a theoretical 
way (12:34). Jesus at the Last Supper says he 
has taken his last taste of wine until the Kingdom 
has come (14:25). 

Recapitulation. — This is all. Mark does not 
anywhere give us a detailed outline of what the 



82 What Jesus Taught 

Kingdom meant. By piecing together these hints, 
however, we get a fairly complete picture of what 
Jesus taught. It was the old Jewish conception 
of the Kingdom of God, but with none of the ex- 
travagant statements about it that had sometimes 
been made (see Isa. 1 1 : 6-9 for a description of the 
taming of the wild animals when the Messiah 
should come). God was going to set up the King- 
dom immediately. It would increase from an 
insignificant beginning to enormous size. It would 
be completed by his own return in a few years with 
hosts of angels. Not all (Jews) are to be in the 
Kingdom. Not all are fitted to be members of it. 
To the unfitted his parables throw darkness instead 
of light upon his teaching. A man ought to go to 
any length to overcome the obstacle that would 
keep him out of the Kingdom. Wealth is one of 
the obstacles. Repentance, simplicity, sincerity, 
and love are the marks of Kingdom-men. So sure 
does Jesus feel of the program of the future that he 
takes a vow not to taste wine again until he drinks 
it in the Kingdom. Even at the end of his life, 
then, the Kingdom is still something future to 
Jesus. Yet there is nothing to indicate that he 
thought of it as a state of being after death; he 
believed that though it would not come during his 
lifetime, it would come during his generation. 

Evaluation. — What are the elements here that 
are available to us ? Clearly not the time element, 



About Civilization 83 

for already not less than one generation, but more 
than sixty generations have passed away. Not 
the national element, for we can have no interest 
now in an ancient dream of a Jewish empire or even 
of a world- Judaism. Not in its spectacular climax, 
for history indicates that the world is to be brought 
to an ideal state by patient, long-continued im- 
provement, wrought out by men, rather than by 
a sudden interference and revolution brought about 
by God. It appears to be God's way to let men 
work things out for themselves. It is true of the 
world as of the community that "the redemptive 
forces are resident forces." While God will help us, 
he will not do the job for us. In Mark 's version of 
Jesus ' teaching about the Kingdom, however, there 
are suggestions of permanent value. Admission to 
the Kingdom is based on character and the charac- 
teristics required we, too, admire. Devotion to 
the Kingdom as the supreme value, penitence, 
unaffectedness, love, were to mark the Kingdom- 
men. They would be a part of an ideal civiliza- 
tion today also. 

THE TEACHING LN MATTHEW 

Summary of Matthew's report. — When we 
examine Matthew's Gospel we find a much fuller 
treatment of Jesus' teaching. Mark is more a 
book of the acts of Jesus than of his teaching, de- 
scribing seventeen miracles and referring to many 



84 What Jesus Taught 

more. While Matthew mentions fourteen of the 
miracles Mark records, he gives considerably more 
space than Mark does to the teaching of Jesus. 
The fifty-one passages in Matthew referring directly 
to the Kingdom are : 3:254:17, 23; 5:3,10,19,20; 
6:10,33; 7 :2I 5 8:11,12; 9:35; 10:7; 11:11,12; 
12:28; 13:11, 19, 24, 31, S3, 38, 41, 43, 44, 45> 47> 
52; 16:19, 28; 18:1, 3, 4, 23; 19:12, 14, 23, 24; 
20:1; 21:31,43; 22:2; 23:13; 24:14; 25:1,34; 
26:29. 

In Matthew, John the Baptist declares that the 
Kingdom is at hand, and calls for repentance (3:2). 
When Jesus began to address the crowds his mes- 
sage was the same (4:17, 23). In the Sermon on 
the Mount, Jesus says the Kingdom-men will be 
modest (5:3). Endurance for right 's sake will also 
characterize them (5: 10). The Kingdom is not to 
do away with the requirements of the Jewish Law. 
In fact the Kingdom demands an even higher type 
of living than the strictest Jews were accustomed to 
(5 : 19, 20). Men are to pray for the coming of the 
Kingdom (6:10), and are to give it first place 
(6:33). Not everybody gets into the Kingdom, 
even though he pretend to accept Jesus' leadership. 
Only those enter who do God's will (7:21). The 
Kingdom is not limited to the Jews. It will include 
many non-Jews, while Jews themselves will not get 
in (8:11, 12). Jesus' message as he goes from vil- 
lage to village is about the Kingdom (9:35). It is 



About Civilization 85 

also to be that of the disciples on their tour (10: 7). 
The Kingdom-men will be vastly superior to those 
that have preceded them, so that an inferior man in 
the Kingdom will be greater than John the Baptist, 
whom Jesus eulogizes as the equal of the greatest 
men of all history (11: 11). The verse in 11:12 
seems to be a remark added in later times and to 
refer to the persecutions suffered by the Christians. 
Jesus argues that his power to exorcise demons is a 
proof that the Kingdom of God has come, since it 
shows that the power of Satan has been broken by 
the Spirit of God which Jesus has (12:28). The 
disciples have special insight into the facts about 
the Kingdom which others do not grasp (13:11). 
Failing to understand what they have heard about 
the Kingdom they soon forget it (13:19). For a 
time the Kingdom-people and those who are not the 
kingdom kind will live in the world together like 
wheat and darnel (13:24), but will later be sepa- 
rated (13:41), and the Kingdom-people glorified 
(13:43). The Kingdom will begin in a small way, 
but gradually increase to huge size (13-31, 33). 
When a man discovers the Kingdom he values it 
more than anything else (13 : 44, 45). At the proper 
time God will separate the Kingdom-people from 
the rest of the world as fishermen sort their catch 
(13:47). Men who understand the Kingdom will 
find various ways of describing it, some familiar, 
some original (13:52). Jesus congratulates Peter 



86 What Jesus Taught 

upon his recognition of his (Jesus ') messiahship, and 
says that Peter has been given the keys to the King- 
dom of Heaven, that is, that Peter understands 
what the nature of the Kingdom is and can tell men 
how to get into it (16: 19). This verse is a famous 
one, and often used as a proof that Jesus gave Peter 
a special power by which he could forgive men their 
sins or keep them from being forgiven. John 20:23 
also states that Jesus gave such a power to the dis- 
ciples as a group. Did Jesus ever say such things ? 
He did claim to be able to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-11; 
Matt. 9 : 2-6 ; Luke 5 : 20-24, all the same story) . He 
did teach his disciples to pray that they might be for- 
given as much as they had forgiven others (Matt. 
6:12), or because they had forgiven others (Luke 
11:4). He did say that God's forgiveness was 
based on men's forgiving their fellows — forgive a 
man, and God will forgive you; refuse to forgive 
him, and God will refuse to forgive you (Mark 1 1 : 
25-26; Matt. 6:14, 15; 18:35; Luke 6:37; 17:3,4). 
To so simple and natural a thought about forgive- 
ness as this is it may seem that Jesus would not add 
the teaching of a mysterious ghostly power, com- 
mitted to one or all of his disciples. Some will say 
that it does not sound like Jesus, but like an echo 
from later Christian thinking. At this distance we 
can not say that the mind of Jesus could not have 
held both ideas, that of forgiveness coming spon- 
taneously from God as a result of a man 's attitude 



About Civilization 87 

toward his fellows, and that of forgiveness as medi- 
ated through special agents. The latter method 
was that with which the Jews were familiar, with 
their system of priesthood and sacrifices. These 
words ascribed to Jesus must be taken in connection 
with all the other teachings ascribed to him, and 
when compared with these they certainly seem 
incongruous. Jesus thinks of the Kingdom as com- 
ing within the lifetime of some of his hearers (16 : 28). 
In the Kingdom the simplicity of childhood is the 
characteristic most highly valued; without it one 
can not enter the Kingdom (18: 1-4). A forgiving 
spirit will mark the men of the Kingdom (18 : 23-35). 
Some men will abstain from marriage or undergo 
emasculation to promote the Kingdom (19:12). 
The Kingdom-men, he repeats, will be simple, sin- 
cere, unaffected, like children (19:14). Rich men 
will have a hard time getting into the Kingdom 
(19:23, 24). Equality will prevail among the men 
of the Kingdom (20:1-16). People of the under- 
world, Jesus says, will respond more quickly to the 
Kingdom appeal than professional religious leaders 
(21:31). The Kingdom is not to be limited to the 
Jews, but to go over to non-Jews (21:43). Rejec- 
tion of the Kingdom or unfitness for membership 
cancels a man's chances for a place in it (22 : 2-14). 
The Scribes and Pharisees confuse men by their 
opposition and so keep them out of the Kingdom 
(23:13). The "good news" of the Kingdom is 



88 What Jesus Taught 

mentioned (24:14). The Kingdom is to be con- 
summated suddenly, giving no chance to the unpre- 
pared (25:1). The righteous are to receive their 
reward by being given a part in the Kingdom when 
Jesus returns in power and glory (25:34). Jesus 
vows not to taste wine again until he and his dis- 
ciples drink it in the Kingdom (26: 29). 

Recapitulation. — Summing up Matthew's fuller 
statement of Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom, 
we may say that it was an ideal state of society 
gradually brought about from a small beginning, 
but to be completed within the lifetime of some of 
Jesus' hearers. He thought of it both as already 
begun and yet to be finished. The end of the period 
of its growth would be marked by his own return, 
accompanied by angels, at which time he would 
assign men of all races to their proper place either 
in the Kingdom or in a place of suffering. Member- 
ship in the Kingdom was to be based on good char- 
acter as men had demonstrated it in action. The 
Jews had had an opportunity to accept the King- 
dom, but had rejected it, and non-Jews would now 
have membership in it. Modesty, simplicity, sin- 
cerity, such virtues as we regard as natural to 
childhood would be those that made men fit for the 
Kingdom. The Kingdom was so important that 
men should give it the highest place in their lives. 

Evaluation. — Thus we can see that even in 
Matthew, where Jesus' teaching about the King- 



About Civilization 89 

dom is given most fully, we can get only a glimpse 
of what his thought was. There is enough, how- 
ever, to make it clear that the Kingdom-teaching 
was the heart of his message, and that he set it 
before men as life's most commanding ideal. As 
in Mark, there are features of it which compel our 
allegiance at once, while there are others that were 
a part of the thought of the time, and which have 
no significance now. But the Kingdom as inter- 
racial, made up of modest, simple, sincere men, 
who have exchanged for the religion of organization 
and ritual, the religion of the Spirit, who are willing 
to suffer for the right, who are so kindly in their 
attitude toward others that they are willing to make 
their own forgiveness of others the yardstick by 
which God shall measure off the forgiveness they 
ask for, who have lost their petty, personal cares 
in enthusiasm for a great, unselfish cause, who 
back up their professions of loyalty to Jesus by 
acts of human goodness, these elements appeal 
today. 

THE TEACHING IN LUKE 

Summary of Luke's report. — Taking up Luke's 
report of Jesus ' great central message, we find him 
referring to it directly thirty-seven times, as follows : 
4:43; 6:20; 7:28; 8:1, 10; 9:2, 11, 27, 60, 62; 
10:9,11; 11:2,20; 12:31,32; 13:18,20,28,29; 
14:15; 16:16; 17:20, 21; 18:16, 17, 24, 25, 29; 
19:11; 21:31; 22:16, 18, 29, 30; 23:42, 52. As 



90 What Jesus Taught 

was the case in Matthew some of these of course are 
duplicates from Mark. 

Luke's first record of Jesus' use of the term, 
"the Kingdom of God," is in 4:43 in his version of 
the story told in Mark 1 : 35-39. Jesus says that he 
was sent to preach the good tidings of the Kingdom 
of God. Luke also has the Sermon on the Mount 
in a shorter form than that of Matthew, chapters 
5, 6, 7. According to Luke, Jesus regards poverty 
as calculated to develop the type of character 
which distinguishes a Kingdom-man (6 : 20). Jesus 
eulogizes John the Baptist as the equal of the great- 
est men of history, but regards the new civilization 
he has in mind as so much in advance of the one 
then present that a Kingdom-man of inferior capa- 
city would be superior to past history's greatest 
men (7:28). Jesus and his party, composed of at 
least twenty-five men and women, tour Palestine 
preaching the Kingdom-doctrine (8:1). In explain- 
ing what he meant by his story about the sower and 
the seed Jesus tells (as in Mark 4:11-12) what his 
motive was in using stories. His object was not, as 
is often supposed, to make his meaning clearer, but 
rather to obscure it, make it harder to understand 
(8:10). He quotes Isa. 6:9 in his explanation. 

Jesus sent twelve of his students out on a village 
preaching tour (9:2). At Bethsaida, Jesus ad- 
dresses the crowds that follow him there upon the 
subject, the Kingdom of God (9:11). Some of his 



About Civilization 91 

hearers would live to see the coming of the King- 
dom (9: 27). The duty of preaching the Kingdom 
takes precedence even of family obligations (9 : 60) . 
Once committed to the task of promoting the 
Kingdom, no retreat was permissible (9:62). He 
once sent out seventy of his adherents on a preach- 
ing tour. Their message was to be, the Kingdom 
of God was near. If the villages rejected them, 
they were in leaving to repeat their assertion that 
the Kingdom was near (10:9, 11). In the Lord's 
Prayer, Jesus taught men to pray for the coming of 
the Kingdom (11:2). He regarded his success in 
casting out demons as a proof that the Kingdom 
had come (11 : 20). He thought that if men would 
devote themselves to the Kingdom, God would see 
to it that they were supplied with enough to eat and 
to wear (12:31). God's own interest in the King- 
dom was a guaranty of this (12:32). The Kingdom 
is to grow immensely, though its beginning will be 
small (13 : 18, 20). In the Kingdom there will be the 
old Jewish patriarchs and prophets and many Gen- 
tiles. But many of Jesus ' hearers may find them- 
selves excluded ( 13:28-29). In response to the 
remark of a fellow-guest concerning the felicity of 
those who should banquet in the Kingdom, Jesus 
told a story to show how people were refusing the 
invitation to become sharers in the Kingdom. 
Those who had the first chance threw it away, 
and the invitation then went to others who would 



92 What Jesus Taught 

appreciate it, that is, to the non-religious classes, 
the lower strata of Jewish society (14:15-24). In 
16: 16 Luke clears up the difficult passage in Matt. 
11:12 making Jesus comment upon men 's eager- 
ness to enter the Kingdom. Upon being asked 
when the Kingdom would come, Jesus said it was 
present already (17:20, 21). Obviously he means 
it has begun. The mustard seed has been planted, 
the leaven has been placed in the meal. Kingdom - 
men have the simplicity of childhood (18:16); 
without such characteristics they cannot enter it 
(18:17). Rich men enter with the greatest diffi- 
culty (18:24, 25). Those who make sacrifices for 
the Kingdom 's sake will be fully recompensed both 
before and after the Kingdom comes (18:29). 
"The world to come" or "the age to come" was a 
common phrase referring to the time after the 
Kingdom had been set up. In 19: 1 1-27 Luke tells 
how Jesus threw cold water on the people's idea 
that the Kingdom was about to be established. 
Jesus told a story to show that there would be a 
considerable wait and that meanwhile there was a 
chance for character to show itself. Incidentally 
he throws in a threatening warning against those 
who oppose him. Preceding the coming of the 
Kingdom there is to be a period of terrific upheaval 
and distress accompanied by fearful natural calami- 
ties (21:31). At the Last Supper, Jesus renounces 
the partaking in the Passover meal, and drinking 



About Civilization 93 

wine, until the Kingdom has come (22:16, 18). 
He pictures the Kingdom in which his disciples are 
to share. They are to eat at Jesus ' table and each 
one is to act as a judge of one of the twelve tribes 
of Israel (22 : 29-30). One of the men crucified with 
Jesus asks that Jesus "remember" him — that is 
with favor — when he shall come in his Kingdom 
(23:42). Joseph of Arimathea, who secured the 
body of Jesus after death, was a member of the 
Kingdom-party among the Jews (23 : 52). Compare 
Mark 15:43, and Matt. 27:58, which hints that 
to be a disciple of Jesus was to be an expecter of 
the Kingdom. 

Recapitulation. — We see, then, that Luke has, 
to a large extent, the same teaching about the King- 
dom which Mark and Matthew preserve, but that 
he has also some new material. He makes Jesus 
not only regard wealth as a hindrance to entrance 
into the Kingdom, but regard poverty as a help. 
This distinct reference to poverty is a new note. So 
also the reference (8:1) to the large number of 
women who accompanied Jesus and his twelve dis- 
ciples on a preaching tour and who financed the mis- 
sion is new. Luke also (16: 16) makes intelligible a 
passage which in Matt. 11:12 is difficult to under- 
stand. He also identifies the period Jesus speaks 
of as the " regeneration" in Matt. 19:28 with the 
Kingdom (22:29, 3°)- The passage referring to 
the Father's delight in giving the Kingdom as a 



94 What Jesus Taught 

basis for confidence that he will provide food and 
clothing for the man who devotes himself to the 
Kingdom (12:32) is new. No other gospel has it. 
Likewise the whole account of Jesus ' statement that 
the Kingdom is already present among men (17: 
20-21) is new material. So also is the bandit's 
appeal to Jesus to " remember" him in the King- 
dom (23:42). 

Evaluation. — Aside from the values already 
noted in the discussion of Mark's and Matthew's 
reports, Luke's version of Jesus' teaching empha- 
sizes a common observation, viz., the tendency of 
poverty to strengthen character. This is a point 
that in the discussion group will at once arouse vari- 
ant opinions. Obviously the truth does not lie 
either in extreme affirmation or in extreme denial. 
Discussion will bring out the lines of limitation. 
Yet this phase which Luke emphasizes, and which 
has led some scholars to think that Luke was influ- 
enced by the Ebionites, is one which experience in a 
broad way justifies. A wholesome attitude toward 
the economic limitations under which most people 
necessarily live is important, and the recognition 
of the character-forming value of poverty in the 
teaching of Jesus is significant. Likewise the 
prominence given by Luke to the activity of women 
in connection with Jesus' preaching of the King- 
dom-gospel is a feature that will be noted and 
prized by some. Luke has sometimes been called 



About Civilization 95 

the "woman's gospel" because of this emphasis, 
which may be traced in a number of passages. In 
these peculiarities, then, Luke 's report adds to the 
values of the Kingdom-teaching. 

RECAPITULATION OF JESUS ' TEACHING ABOUT 

CIVILIZATION AS GIVEN BY MARK, 

MATTHEW, AND LUKE 

On the basis of these hundred or more passages 
in Mark, Matthew, and Luke must rest our recon- 
struction of Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom. 
We have nothing else to build upon. We could 
easily carry the study into the ideas about the 
Kingdom of God current among the Jews before 
Jesus and current among the Christians after Jesus, 
but neither would determine for us with certainty 
the idea Jesus held. That we must get, if we get it 
at all, from the gospels, and almost entirely from the 
first three gospels. The Gospel of John has only 
three passages, 3:3, 5; 18:36, in which the King- 
dom is mentioned, and these are unlike anything in 
Mark, Matthew, or Luke. What can we say on 
the basis of the gospel evidence was Jesus' ideal 
civilization, his conception of the Kingdom of 
God? 

1. It was a society made up of human beings 
(not angels, archangels, etc.). 

2. It was located upon earth (not somewhere in 
the sky). 



96 What Jesus Taught 

3. Jesus himself was to be the ruling person in it. 

4. His twelve disciples were to be governors or 
judges, each heading one of the twelve tribes. Of 
course at this time there were only two tribes (ten 
had been "lost" in 721 B.C., see p. 44), but in 
the Kingdom the ancient number was to be in some 
way restored. 

5. There was to be eating and drinking in the 
Kingdom and the Twelve were to eat at Jesus' 
table. Jesus foregoes drinking wine until he may 
drink it in the Kingdom. 

6. The Jewish patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, are to be in the Kingdom, as well as many 
others, who are non-Jews. Jesus shows elsewhere 
(Mark 12 : 26 and parallels) that he thinks of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob as still alive. 

7. The Kingdom is to be formally inaugurated 
by Jesus ' own return upon the clouds as the Son of 
Man, accompanied by hosts of angels. 

8. All nations will then be assembled before him 
in judgment, which will be based upon the treat- 
ment they have accorded to the Jews. Any kind- 
ness or failure to show kindness to a Jew will be 
treated by Jesus as if done directly to him person- 
ally. The blessing and the doom of this judgment 
will be for eternity. 

9. Preceding the formal inauguration of the 
Kingdom there will be a period marked by terrific 
calamities and a state of social anarchy. 



About Civilization 97 

10. Jesus anticipates his own death at the hands 
of the Jewish religious leaders, but believes he will 
be raised from death and later return as the Son 
of Man. 

n. This return will be within the lifetime of 
some of his hearers, say roughly inside of fifty years. 

12. During this intervening period the King- 
dom will gradually grow from a small beginning to 
immense size. That is, Jesus thinks of it as already 
numbering a few members, but destined to include 
multitudes. 

13. The Kingdom-men are to be marked by the 
characteristics of simplicity, modesty, kindliness, 
the severest rectitude, submission to the will of God, 
devotion to the Kingdom, poverty, brotherliness. 

14. The Kingdom when once established, is to 
last forever. 

Present-day value of the teaching. — What are 
now the features of Jesus' Kingdom teaching that 
are of value to us today ? Taking it as it stands in 
the gospels and trying to combine the statements 
given into a coherent whole, we find much that is 
foreign to our ways of thinking. But this foreign- 
ness lies in the form of expression rather than in the 
essential idea. As generations pass, terminologies 
change, but a great idea lives on indefinitely. And 
Jesus crammed into the phrase the Kingdom of God 
a meaning that thrills men even yet. Stripped of 
its temporary trappings it is the Master 's dream of 



98 What Jesus Taught 

an ideal civilization. It was to be a form of social 
life in which men lived sincerely, devoutly, simply, 
with all their actions controlled by love, that is, 
consideration of the common good. The honoring 
of the obscure virtues of forbearance, modesty, 
poverty, unadvertised kindnesses, will mark the 
Kingdom civilization. Kingdom-men will do the 
will of God. It has been well said, "The Kingdom 
of God is a social order wherein men live together 
as brothers regarding God as Father." 

A vision of a possible world-civilization. — Once 
in a while we catch a glimpse of what human life 
may become. We see the vision of a humanity 
united in the task of conquering this planet as a 
habitation for man. We dream of a time when the 
immense fortunes that have hitherto been period- 
ically swallowed up in the engulfing crater of war 
will be spent in the intensification of agriculture, 
the perfecting of roads, bridges, waterways, sani- 
tation, municipal projects, and all that goes to 
improve life-conditions. We have been like that 
French engineer who proposed to open a channel 
into the Sahara and cover its sands with the waters 
of the Mediterranean, and so turn a desert into a 
garden. We have conceived of an era when men 
should not any more die before their time, when 
the workman should be adequately protected by 
safety devices, when scientific sanitation should 
insure the public health, when proper housing and 



About Civilization 99 

nursing should reduce infant mortality, when every 
human being born into the world should be well 
born, with its blood free from the taint of transmis- 
sible disease, when every life should have a chance 
to develop to its full value, when the forces of nature 
should be reduced to servitude, and man conquer 
so far as may be storm and tidal wave, earthquake 
and volcano. And more than this, when ignorance, 
superstition, cruelty, and vice should yield to reason 
and the religion of Jesus, and men should dwell 
together in love as the children of the All-Father! 
It is only a glimpse we have as yet of what 
human life may become. We know of the civiliza- 
tions of Mesopotamia and Egypt seven thousand 
years ago, but even yet the human race is young. 
The task of man as given in Genesis, " replenish the 
earth and subdue it" is only begun. Think how 
immeasurably life in China will be benefited by the 
building of railroads and the spread of one common 
language; think how much of Mexico, South 
America, Africa, lies uncultivated, untamed wilder- 
ness. Think what fascinating fields of research lie 
open in the values of plants, the discovery of new 
methods in agriculture, manufacture, machinery, 
chemistry, medicine, surgery, and every branch of 
science. Education ought to teach us how to live, 
but its scheme has been largely remote from life. 
In education, too, there is a great field for him who 
would help humanity conquer this planet. Life is 



ioo What Jesus Taught 

thrillingly interesting when we think of ourselves as 
partners in the great firm of God, Man, and Com- 
pany organized for the improvement of the world ! 
By working all together we can make the King- 
dom of God — the ideal world-civilization — come. 
The part each man has is this — Do Right! When 
for a day, an hour, we act with those words as our 
guide, we have for so long, and so far as our influ- 
ence goes, made the Kingdom of God on earth. In 
the completed Kingdom every man will do right all 
the time, then every man will have his chance, 
earth will be subdued, and human life will have 
become ideal. 



CHAPTER VI 

WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT HATE, WAR, AND 
NON-RESISTANCE 

The problem of hate. — One of the problems 
raised during the world- war was that of hate. 
Some asked, "How can we avoid hating the 
enemy ? " Others held that in war time hate is not 
only unavoidable, but desirable; that men fight 
best, give most money, and are most patriotic, when 
they hate hardest, and that consequently, as a war 
measure, whatever deepens hate is to be promoted. 
Americans were censured for not hating more 
intensely, and were advised that the time was com- 
ing when they would hate as they had never hated 
before. Without question many persons honestly 
believed that to hate the enemy was a virtue and a 
proof of the soundness of their Americanism. Yet 
now it is realized that the hate so industriously 
cultivated must be allowed to die out, or better 
still, a propaganda of friendliness be launched 
which shall undo the work done by the propaganda 
of hate. 

Besides this emergency hate of war time there is 
the social problem of hatred in ordinary life. In 
many a quiet village and country neighborhood the 
religious or social worker finds his plans baffled 



102 What Jesus Taught 

again and again by the crossing lines of hate. One 
of the tasks of the minister, for example, is the dis- 
covery of the parish hatreds. 

Hate is a personal problem, also. Nearly every- 
body in the course of a lifetime encounters someone 
who is offensive, or unfair, arrogant, dishonest, or 
cruel, someone who in some way outrages his feel- 
ings and arouses his resentment. He will have to 
fight hard to keep hate from setting in. 

Jesus and the hate problem. — The hate problem 
in all its phases, international, social, and personal, 
was familiar to Jesus. Some sixty years before his 
birth the Roman general Pompey had conquered 
Palestine and changed it from a little independent 
state to a tax-ridden province of Rome. The sol- 
diers had cut the throats of the Jews who were 
worshiping in the Temple. Exorbitant taxation 
had been followed by Graeco-Roman propaganda 
and the introduction of pagan customs. Every 
effort had been made to Romanize Palestine. 
Against the powerful government that was thus 
attempting to absorb them and smother their sense 
of nationality, the Jews cherished an intense hostil- 
ity. Jesus knew, too, the hatred felt between 
classes, that between the Jews and the Samaritans, 
and that between the loyal Jewish citizens and the 
publicans who had become the agents of Rome. 
There is a hint, too, that he must have known some- 
thing of the animosities that existed between rival 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 103 

villages (John 1:44, 46). And Jesus learned bit- 
terly well from his own experiences what it was to 
have personal enemies. 

Knowing hate so well Jesus stood squarely 
against it, urging men to love their enemies, and to 
pray for their persecutors (Matt. 5:43). This is 
all the more remarkable because in the religion in 
which Jesus was brought up there was much that 
sanctioned hate. Jesus mentions as a current quota- 
tion from the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
and hate thine enemy," not a correct quoting of the 
law (Lev. 19:18), but one which shows the temper 
of his fellow-religionists. Moreover, there was 
much in the Old Testament to justify their atti- 
tude. The imprecatory psalms (e.g., Psalms 59 
and 69) are samples of terrible curses called forth by 
religious hate. Of those whom he regarded as the 
enemies of Yahveh the psalmist says, "I hate them 
with a perfect hatred " (Ps. 139 : 22). The prophecy 
of Nahum is an ancient Jewish "Hymn of Hate." 
When Jesus teaches love for enemies he is setting up 
a higher standard of morality than the religion of 
his ancestors had erected. 

We often use the word " hate " without thinking. 
If one thinks over what hate really is, it is not hard 
to see why Jesus wished men to eliminate it from 
their lives. The reason is that hate is an essentially 
degrading passion. Suspicion, disapproval, hostil- 
ity, anger, are all at times justifiable and may, if 



104 What Jesus Taught 

controlled by reason, even be ennobling. But hate 
is different, and stands in a class by itself. It is 
ill-will, desire to injure, and predisposes one to 
unfair action. Moreover, there is a strain of 
cowardice in it. It thus reacts on the person who 
cherishes it, blinding him to facts and making him 
act against his own interest. 

For the negative and degrading passion of hate, 
Jesus substituted the positive and ennobling atti- 
tude of friendliness, of genuine well-wishing, that we 
call love. Define love as desire for the well-being of 
others and it is obvious that this attitude is wholly 
compatible with the sternest justice, in fact 
demands it. It is no mark of love when parents do 
not require obedience, when teachers are lax, when 
officials wink at crime, when national arrogance and 
oppression are allowed to go unresisted. Jesus 
made love, consideration for the general good, the 
controlling principle of action. He recognized also 
that men tend to react as they are acted upon, that 
they are likely to take the same attitude toward us 
that we take toward them. Thus he says (Matt. 
7:1-12), "If you are critical, you will be criti- 
cised; if you are generous, men will be generous 
to you; if you want people to treat you in a cer- 
tain way, treat them in that way, and you will 
get what you want." Thus Jesus would have us 
overcome hate in others by showing the kindness 
in ourselves. 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 105 

Jesus' teaching about war. — Jesus makes very 
little direct use of the term "war." The word 
occurs but four times in his recorded teaching, and 
then without discussion of the merits of war itself. 
In Mark 13 : 7, in the so-called "Little Apocalypse," 
or "Apocalypse of Jesus," Jesus is represented as 
saying "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors 
of wars, be not troubled." The "Little Apoca- 
lypse" is taken up also by Matthew and Luke, and 
in Matt. 24:6 the saying is rendered, "And ye shall 
hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not 
troubled." In Luke 21:9 the same saying reads, 
"And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be 
not terrified." In Luke 14:31 in giving warning of 
the difficulty and cost of discipleship he says, "Or 
what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in 
war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether 
he is able with ten thousand to meet him that com- 
eth against him with twenty thousand?" Jesus 
then directly mentions war in only two passages, 
Mark 13:7 and Luke 14:31, since Matt. 24:6 and 
Luke 21:9 are duplicates of Mark 13:7. In the 
one instance it occurs in a prediction, in the other 
in an illustration, but in neither does he discuss 
war itself. 

Indirectly Jesus teaches something, though not 
much, about war. In Matt. 10 : 34 he says, "Think 
not that I came to send peace on the earth : I came 
not to send peace, but a sword." This is followed 



106 What Jesus Taught 

shortly by, "He that findeth his life shall lose it ; 
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." 
Taking these together it might seem that Jesus 
thought of heading a revolution, but his general 
attitude is such as to make it more probable that he 
had in mind the trying experiences which he foresaw 
his followers would have to endure. Discipleship 
was dangerous! 

According to Luke 22:35 J ust before entering 
Gethsemane, Jesus contrasts the favor the disciples 
had enjoyed upon their mission tours about the 
villages of Palestine with the peril of their present 
situation. The conversation ran like this: 

Jesus: When I sent you forth without purse and wallet 
and shoes, lacked ye anything ? 

The Disciples: Nothing. 

Jesus: But now he that hath a purse, let him take it 
and likewise a wallet; and he that hath none [that is, no 
sword] let him sell his cloak and buy a sword. 

The Disciples: Lord, behold, here are two swords. 

Jesus: It is enough. 

Jesus here clearly recognizes that, while his fol- 
lowers were at one time everywhere welcome and 
their needs supplied by a friendly public, now the 
situation is different. Powerful enemies are plot- 
ting his death. He says he is about to be "reck- 
oned among the transgressors," that is, treated as a 
criminal. His disciples stand in danger and should 
prepare for self-defense. Probably he meant only, 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 107 

"Be on your guard!" If he meant literally that 
they were to buy swords, it would hardly seem that 
he would regard two swords as enough for the 
whole group. And, again, a literal instruction to 
buy swords for self-defense would not seem to 
accord with his general teaching of passiveness and 
trust in the Father. 

The classic passage in which Jesus refers to war 
is Matt. 26: 52, "All they that take the sword shall 
perish with the sword." Even here it is not certain 
that he intends to declare a universal political 
principle, viz., that all civilizations that are estab- 
lished by war will ultimately be destroyed by war. 
It may be that he is thinking of the situation then 
present, and that he is merely counseling his rash 
disciple against a foolhardy resistance, merely say- 
ing, "If you show fight, they will kill you." The 
broader meaning, however, would seem not to be 
out of keeping with Jesus ' attitude toward physical 
violence, and may throw light on the philosophy 
that lies back of his counsels of non-resistance. 

In all the gospels an account is given of some 
little resistance that was made at the time of Jesus ' 
arrest. The story is told with increasing fulness in 
the later gospels. In Mark (14:47) a bystander 
draws a sword and strikes a man who is the servant 
of the High Priest, cutting off one of his ears. In 
Matthew (26:51) it is still merely "one of those 
who were with Jesus" who does this. But Jesus' 



108 What Jesus Taught 

remark, already discussed, about taking the sword 
and perishing by the sword, is added. In Luke 
(22:49-50) the disciples see that Jesus is about to 
be arrested and ask him whether they shall strike 
with their swords. Before Jesus can answer, appar- 
ently, one does strike, wounding the high priest's 
servant as described in Mark and Matthew. But 
Luke knows that it was the right ear that was cut 
off, and adds that after mildly reproving the swords- 
man, Jesus touched the ear of the wounded man 
and healed him. The Fourth Gospel (18:10) still 
more definitely says that the sword play was done 
by Peter, that it was the right ear that was cut off, 
that the wounded man's name was Malchus, and 
that he had a relative who was the third of those 
who questioned Peter when he denied Christ (John 
18:26). Jesus orders Peter to put up his sword, 
accepting his arrest passively as being the will 
of God. 

There remain only the famous "other cheek" 
passages (Matt. 5:38-42; Luke 6:27-30) and such 
inferences as may be drawn from Jesus' general 
attitude toward life as that is depicted in sayings 
not connected with the topic war. 

The " other cheek" passages have always been 
troublesome. To many it has seemed that they 
make every form of physical coercion impossible 
to a Christian; that a Christian may plead, beg, 
persuade, argue, pray, buy off, propagandize, pro- 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 109 

test, endure, suffer, educate, but that he may never 
injure another man 's body in his effort at restraint. 
It has been said that even though a man should see 
his wife or daughter outraged before his eyes he 
dare not strike a blow in her defense. He might 
protest to the man who did the deed, but he must 
not hurt him. When non-resistance is stated in 
this extreme way some people are attracted by it. 
There is a certain appeal about the thought of com- 
plete renunciation of all self-assertion and entire 
submission to what is regarded as God 's will. On 
the other hand, to many such a position seems a 
cowardly shifting of responsibility. It has been 
held, however, by men whose courage was beyond 
question. They were not lacking in physical 
strength had they chosen to fight, nor were they 
afraid. They were controlled rather by a religious 
conviction. * 

A mediating view. — To many others, however, 
such a view seems not only mistaken, but unethical. 
It cannot be right, it is argued, to leave the weak 
and helpless without a defender. A man is a 
slacker who permits brutality to go on which he 
might stop. Jesus, it is pointed out, does not 
recommend a negligent attitude toward injuries 
inflicted upon others. He only tells us not to resist 
insults or injuries to ourselves. He was angry, it 

1 For one of the most famous statements of the non-resistant 
view see Tolstoi, My Religion. 



no What Jesus Taught 

is said, but not at those who harmed him personally. 
He was angry when he saw others wronged. 

Objections to this view. — But even when so 
stated the doctrine of non-resistance is not wholly 
satisfying to one 's reason, however it may appeal to 
one's religious feeling. It is obvious that even 
though one might conceivably be willing to allow 
one 's self to be injured or killed without defending 
one 's self, one 's responsibilities to others might not 
permit one to do so. A father is in duty bound to 
preserve his life and health as far as lies in his power 
for his family's sake. To make it clearer, let us 
think of the president of the United States. His 
life is carefully guarded. He could not practice 
non-resistance even as limited to personal injuries. 
For him to yield his life or his health to the whim 
of a crank or the hate of an enemy would be an 
irreparable injustice to the whole American people. 
In a smaller way each one of us is responsible to 
some group; we are in duty bound to keep ourselves 
alive and fit. This is not selfishness, but its oppo- 
site. When the good of the group demands that we 
submit to injury or death or even that we inflict 
injury and death, that becomes our duty. 

Assumptions of non-resistants and the objec- 
tions urged against them. — Let us take up what 
seem to be some fundamental assumptions of those 
who interpret Jesus as a pacifist or who in some 
other way arrive at the non-resistance conclusion. 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance hi 

First it is assumed that human nature when not 
opposed by physical violence will react favorably, 
that is, if the injured man will make no resistance 
the aggressor will be ashamed and cease his injuries. 
If you will not resist, your enemy will desist ! This 
claim overlooks the obvious lessons of history and 
biology. These show that the strong have imposed 
their will upon the weak even though the weak 
made no resistance. The principle holds both with 
men and animals that to make one's self a sheep 
will not make the wolf cease to be a wolf. The way 
to safety and respect is not through helplessness. 
A second assumption of the non-resistant is that 
if man will refrain from physical violence, God will 
interfere in some way in his behalf. God will inter- 
vene and prevent the aggressor from fulfilling his 
design. There are, however, plenty of instances that 
show that God does not do this. Compare Judg. 
18:7-10, 27-29, which tells how the Danites 
attracted by the wealth and fertility of Laish, a 
secluded city of quiet, peaceable people, attacked and 
annihilated it. Defenselessness was no protection 
against cupidity and power, and God did not inter- 
fere to save them. Or read Josephus, Antiquities 
xii. 6, which tells how on one occasion the Jews 
when attacked by the Syrians made no resistance 
because it was the Sabbath day. They hid in 
caves and the Syrians smoked them to death. 
Though they made no resistance, God did not 



ii2 What Jesus Taught 

deliver them, and a thousand Jews were killed 
that day. 

A third assumption is that of the supreme 
sacredness of human life. Whatever happens, it is 
said, we must not take the life of a human being. 
Here we ought to think clearly about what we mean 
by "life." In this sense it is the continuation of 
conscious, animate existence. There are other 
things, as we have already said, worth more than 
that. Righteousness, honor, high ideals, and the 
increase of the significance and nobility of human 
life in general are worth more. It is still true that 
it is better for one man to die than for the whole 
people to perish (John 1 1 : 50 ; 18:14). It is better 
for many men to die than that the life of whole 
generations in the future should be degraded. 

The truth in the doctrine of non-resistance and 
summary of objections. — There are two grains of 
truth in the theory of non-resistance : (a) It is com- 
monly recognized that voluntary morality is supe- 
rior to enforced morality. Non-resistance makes 
right action optional with the evildoer, not compul- 
sory, (b) Non-resistance recognizes that there is a 
justice in the universe which in the long run 
punishes wrong action. 

To a certain extent, and in minor matters, the 
spirit of non-resistance has a rightful place. It is 
the part of magnanimity not to insist that every 
personal offense be strictly punished. The spirit 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 113 

of revenge and retaliation reacts harmfully upon the 
one who cherishes it. There are, however, con- 
siderations that make a strict adherence to it in 
common life impossible. 

1. It draws an artificial line between physical 
and intellectual restraint. If non-resistance is to 
be practiced rigidly, it would appear that it must not 
stop at mere abstinence from physical violence. It 
is not clear why physical restraint should be for- 
bidden and other forms of restraint allowed. If the 
evildoer may not be restrained by physical force, 
why may he be by ballot, or statute, or public 
opinion ? 

2. If rigidly observed, even as limited to physi- 
cal violence, it becomes itself a vice. It prevents 
the protection of those to whom protection is due 
by those from whom it is due. There can be no 
effective interference with the selfish and rapacious 
tendencies of men. In the effort to avoid inter- 
ference with the wrongdoing of some, responsibility 
for the welfare of others would be neglected. 

3. The assumptions of the non-resistant are 
flatly opposed to fact. Passivity does not guaran- 
tee freedom from attack, either because it will 
touch the heart of the invader or because God will 
interfere to protect the man or the nation that 
refuses to strike. God commits to us the task of 
making the world what it ought to be. His will 
will never be done unless we see to it that it is done. 



ii4 What Jesus Taught 

Might does not make right, but right must be 
backed by might or right will not prevail. The 
resort to physical force is the last resort, but there 
must always be a physical force to resort to if neces- 
sity arise. Back of all our easy-going, kindly life 
there are hard, grim facts that only the initiated 
know. One of our presidents has said, " The foun- 
dation of law and order is the judge and the police- 
man.' ' This is not an argument for brutality, for 
inhuman methods of punishment for criminals, or 
for aggressive war. It is the acceptance of the facts 
of experience. In the Kingdom of God there will 
be no need for force, but if the friends of the King- 
dom never use force, there will never be any 
Kingdom of God! 

Summary and evaluation of the teaching. — The 
amount of teaching on these topics reported by the 
Synoptic Gospels is not large, but full enough to 
give us an idea of what Jesus stood for. He urged 
the displacement of hate by kindly feeling, he gave 
no specific teaching about war, though his general 
attitude would seem to have been such as to have 
made him opposed to it, and he believed in non- 
resistance. 

The value of the teaching of Jesus regarding 
hate, war, and non-resistance lies in its substitution 
of positive and constructive attitudes for negative 
and destructive ones. Love is better than hate, 
peace is better than war, and non-resistance is bet- 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 115 

ter than aggression. Yet, while fully accepting 
these as ideal standards, we must admit that the 
passive, non-resistant attitude is not altogether 
practicable, either in individual or in social life. 
That is to say, it represents a principle rather than 
a rule. We need to avoid overstatements both as 
respects non-resistance (which would lead us into 
extreme pacifism), and as respects individual and 
national assertiveness (which would lead us into 
the philosophy of Nietzsche). Confronted as we 
are in modern society with complex situations, with 
relationships to other nations, with perverse, and 
often perverted and criminal persons and policies 
to deal with, a supine surrender to things as they 
are, or to the desires of unsocial individuals and 
groups would be immoral. The use of force is often 
necessary, and the very existence of a state or 
government of any kind presupposes the possibility 
of its exercise. Thus the extreme non-resistant 
becomes an amiable anarchist, since if his views were 
carried into practice none of the present forms of 
government could continue. 

On the other hand we must avoid the ultra- 
conservative attitude that assumes that " whatever 
is, is right." We are not committed to the preserva- 
tion and perpetuation of the customs and the 
institutions into which we were born merely because 
they were here when we arrived. They have a 
right to continue to exist only by virtue of their 



n6 What Jesus Taught 

serviceability and must yield when better forms 
and methods are discovered. If prisons can be 
humanized, if unhygienic popular customs can be 
eliminated, if industrial conditions can be amelio- 
rated, if racial animosities can be turned into 
friendliness, if war can be done away with, if 
governments can be improved, by all means let us 
support such changes. To be merely a "stand- 
patter," stoutly defending the status quo would 
constitute one an undesirable citizen. 

The adoption of a middle course between 
extreme pacifism and ultra-conservatism naturally 
fails to satisfy the representatives of either of these 
extremes. Therefore, the discussion of this topic 
of hate, war, and non-resistance is likely to arouse 
lively interest. Probably a few will take the non- 
resistant attitude, but most rebel against it and 
present arguments against it. It will be remarked 
that Jesus did not practice non-resistance when he 
drove the traders from the Temple. Some will meet 
this by supposing that he used the "whip of small 
cords" only on the animals, which will again not 
satisfy the objectors, who will say that the animals 
were innocent of any wrong. Others again may 
suppose that Jesus did not use the whip at all on 
either animals or men. What then was its pur- 
pose ? To serve merely as a symbol of force and 
authority? But why would Jesus employ such a 
symbol if he did not believe in the use of force ? 



About Hate, War, and Non-Resistance 117 

This topic is one of the most searching and the 
most fruitful because it compels thinking on the 
normative value of the ideas of Jesus. 1 Out of it 
is likely slowly to emerge the perception that the 
mere fact that Jesus held a certain view, or that we 
believe he did, is not in itself sufficient to commit 
us to the same view; that one may differ with 
Jesus on some points and still be a Christian. Thus 
it helps to make clearer to us our task and responsi- 
bility to think and to build. 

1 See the author's article, "Did Jesus Believe in Demons?" 
Biblical World, July, 1920, p. 376, for account of an experiment 
conducted during the war with a group of eighty-six men, 
Christian laymen and ministers, to whom this question was put : 
"If you became convinced that Jesus was a pacifist, what would 
you do?" Forty-four replied in substance, "I'd be a pacifist, 
too." Thirteen answered ambiguously, and twenty-nine declared 
they would go on supporting the war. 



CHAPTER VII 
WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT DEMOCRACY 

Jesus and democracy. — Conceivably Jesus 
might have given a plan for democratic govern- 
ment. There had been examples of government 
by the people before his time. The Greeks in 
Athens had centuries before worked out a democ- 
racy. The Roman Republic had given way to the 
Empire only a generation before Jesus' birth. 
But Jesus, like the race from which he sprang, had 
religion, not politics, for his life-passion. In de- 
scribing those who should enter the Kingdom, and 
in directing the activities of his disciples in the 
period that would intervene before the setting up of 
the Kingdom, Jesus emphasized moral and divine, 
rather than political, forces. As the gospels repre- 
sent him, the ideal civilization of which he taught 
was to be realized not through a long, slow process 
of gradual improvement in social conditions, 
wrought out by study and experiment, but by a 
divine interference in human affairs through which 
Jesus would become the supreme ruler over a world 
of men of the Kingdom type, and all offending 
elements would be eliminated. 

It is obvious then that we are not to expect an 
elaborate outline of democracy in Jesus' teaching. 

118 



About Democracy 119 

What we may fairly do is to raise the question 
whether in Jesus ' words anywhere we find expressed 
principles which anticipate those embodied in the 
modern conception of democracy. We need then, 
first to clarify our minds as to the outstanding 
ideas represented in democratic government. 

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS OF DEMOCRACY 

Lincoln's phrase " government of the people, by 
the people, for the people" has become a classic. 
So, too, has that of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, " governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed." The Great War 
drew the line sharply between autocracy and 
democracy. Both terms are derived from the 
Greek. From autos, "self, " and kratos, "strength," 
we have "autocratic," "having strength or power 
in one's self," which is used of a ruler who has 
unlimited power in himself and is responsible to no 
one but himself. From demos, "people," and kra- 
tos, "strength," we have "democratic," which is 
used of a government in which the power is located 
in the people. We may say that autocracy is 
government by Himself, democracy is government 
by Ourselves. It is the difference between He and 
We. Of democracy in this governmental sense 
Jesus has nothing to say. But in respect to some 
of the principles and results of democracy Jesus 
gives some of his finest teachings. 



120 What Jesus Taught 

i. Consideration of community good. — It is one 

of the commonest of sayings now that we ought to 
live for others. While we may not be pharisaical 
enough to assert that selfishness has died within us, 
we do constantly affirm that consideration of com- 
munity good ought to be the controlling principle 
of individual living. In the same way we assert 
that in state affairs thought must be taken for 
world-betterment and not merely for national 
aggrandizement. If there were communication 
and relationship between earth and other worlds, we 
should doubtless be required to think, not only of 
what seemed for the good of our planet, but of how 
the inhabitants of other worlds would be affected 
by our action. Democracy thus recognizes the 
complex network of social relationships, and would 
have consideration for social good be the supreme 
law. Whence have we learned this altruistic insist- 
ence ? Partly, at least, from the teaching of Jesus. 
Consider Mark 10:42-45, and Jesus' teaching that 
the governing principle of his own life was consider- 
ation for others, and that this was to take the place 
of personal ambition among his followers. The 
way Jesus reacted in the presence of large bodies of 
men is an indication of the same spirit (Mark 6:34; 
Matt. 9:36; 14: 14). A great crowd is an appeal- 
ing sight, but the appeal it makes depends upon the 
kind of man who is looking at it. It may present 
itself to him as something to be swayed to laughter 



About Democracy 121 

and tears, and manipulated to his own glorification 
or the success of his cause. He may easily think of 
it as a business opportunity. To the parasitic 
classes of society, the vicious and the criminal, the 
assembling of large numbers of people is always a 
signal for mobilization. Look out for pickpockets 
on circus day! When Jesus saw a crowd, however, 
he seems to have felt a surge of friendliness and 
desire to help. This merging of one 's own interests 
in the interest of the community is essential to 
democracy. 

Upon consideration, however, it becomes obvi- 
ous that the principle that all action should be con- 
trolled by consideration of its effect upon others is 
not a universal solvent for life's problems. For, 
first, experience shows us that we cannot forecast 
infallibly how others will be affected by our action. 
And secondly, we are unable for any great length 
of time to ignore ourselves and act without self- 
interest. We rise to heroic moments of self-forget- 
f ulness ; we may even habituate ourselves to a plan 
of action which is at first distasteful to us out of 
consideration for others, but we are by nature so 
constituted that we can no more absolutely banish 
self-consideration than we can stop breathing. 
Even when we undertake the most unselfish or non- 
remunerative tasks, become settlement workers, or 
foreign missionaries, or nurses, we can never be 
quite sure that the deciding consideration was not 



122 What Jesus Taught 

after all one of self-interest, that we should be hap- 
piest in doing these things, and unhappy in refusing 
to do them. Thinking of this saves us from the 
self-congratulatory and holier-than-thou attitude 
that is a snare to those who go into work which they 
regard as entailing personal sacrifice, 

2. The value of the individual. — These consider- 
ations lead us to another great principle of democ- 
racy, which is likewise one of the teachings of Jesus, 
viz., the right and importance of the individual. 
This is a corollary, not a contradiction of the pre- 
ceding. If you are to control your action by con- 
sideration for its effect upon another or others, the 
reason for it is their significance as persons. But 
you are a person, too, and therefore of significance 
also. A healthy recognition of one's own signifi- 
cance is necessary if one is to be of much usefulness 
to others. A man must know that he is good for 
something if he is going to be good for much. 
Democracy recognizes the significance of the units 
of society. It stands for the full realization of life 
for every man through the development of all his 
latent capacities. It believes in the raising of the 
general tone of society through the improvement of 
the life of each individual as well as the converse. 
Jesus, too, put this emphasis upon the value of the 
individual. Nothing is more precious to a man 
than the possibility of self-realization (Mark 8:36; 
Matt. 16: 26). The Sabbath exists for human wel- 



About Democracy 123 

fare (Mark 2:27; cf. also Matt. 12:11-12). Each 
member of the Kingdom is sacred, and acts of kind- 
ness to them will be rewarded (Matt. 10:42), while 
injuries offered them will be fearfully punished 
(Mark 9:42; Matt. 18:6-10; Luke 17:1-2). In 
one of his most famous sayings he calls men to 
discipleship, offering individual freedom, peace, 
inner harmony (Matt. 11:28-30). The stories of 
healings, too, with which the gospels abound indi- 
cate Jesus' interest in removing men's handicaps 
and giving them a better chance. 

3. Equal opportunity. — This last leads us to 
another fundamental doctrine of democracy, viz., 
that of equality of opportunity. No scheme of 
government could be devised which would turn out 
citizens of precisely the same grade, as a watch fac- 
tory may make its product of uniform quality. 
Too many and too uncertain factors enter into the 
making of human character to allow that. More- 
over, individuality itself necessitates native inequal- 
ity. Nevertheless, we do know that men are 
products just as everything else is, and that if sub- 
jected to given influences men will turn out in the 
large in a similar way. Thus climate, occupations, 
and the topography of a country shape the charac- 
ter of its inhabitants. So, too, do its government 
and institutions. A whole generation of young 
minds may be molded just as the mind of one child 
may be. Thus while it is not possible or desirable 



124 What Jesus Taught 

to turn out citizens of a uniform type, a certain 
standard of attainment may be reached. This is 
made possible by the guaranty of equality of oppor- 
tunity. 

When we speak of equality of opportunity in a 
democracy, we mean that every person shall have 
access to the agencies that tend to develop to the 
fullest extent his native capacities. Thus it means 
that education to an advanced stage shall be made 
free and compulsory; that there shall be elasticity 
in the class divisions of society so that persons may 
move about from class to class as their ability may 
dictate. Thus democracy means negatively the 
removal of handicaps, and positively the promotion 
of contact with developmental influences. In two 
phases of Jesus ' teaching similar tendencies may be 
seen: first, in his condemnation of the enslave- 
ment of men by insistence upon trivialities of form, 
and his emphasis upon fundamentals (Mark 2:27; 
Matt. 15:1-20; 23:23; Luke 11:42). Thus Jesus, 
by the removal of handicaps, anticipated one of the 
great factors of democratic equality of opportunity. 
The other, promotion of contact with develop- 
mental agencies, he taught by his own example of 
free association with men of various classes. In his 
own personality he possessed what we see now to 
have been one of the most significant developmental 
agencies the world has known. Like Socrates, he 
gave himself freely to all so that any man who 



About Democracy 125 

would might have a chance to share his inspiring, 
liberating message and feel the influence of his per- 
sonal power. In doing this he frequently stepped 
beyond the bounds of what was in those days con- 
sidered propriety (Mark 2:15-16; Matt. 9:10, 11; 
Luke 5:29-30; 7:34; 19:7). 

4. Kindly interest in foreigners. — Democracy is 
marked also by its attitude of welcome and appreci- 
ation toward foreigners; not toward tourists and 
distinguished visitors only, but toward the immi- 
grant and his children. His different birthplace, 
language, and customs do not make him unwelcome 
or despised. He is taken into the great democratic 
family, his children share with the native-born the 
advantages of education, and both he and they 
are free to rise as high in the world as their natural 
abilities will take them. America is up to date the 
most striking example of this free intermingling of 
nationalities. It is not likely, however, to be the 
last one, though its undeveloped natural resources 
may for a good while continue to make it the 
most attractive goal for emigration. But that free- 
dom of movement from one continent to another 
which modern transportation and social conditions 
stimulate, and which has been so marked within 
recent years, we may expect to see continually 
augmented. 

During the world- war thousands and millions of 
men crossed the ocean who would never have done 



126 What Jesus Taught 

so under normal conditions. They learned the 
ways and languages of foreign countries and caught 
an understanding of their ideals. All this tends to 
break down provincialism, chauvinism, and nation- 
alistic prejudices and create world-consciousness. 
All of us are thinking internationally now in a way 
we never did before. This international interest 
was implicit in democracy always, but the condi- 
tions of the world at present bring it to conscious 
and constant expression. 

We have already noticed that on this point the 
gospels represent different emphases. Mark and 
Matthew ascribe to Jesus a nationalistic feeling that 
is softened by Luke, though all three record near 
the end instructions for universal evangelization 
(Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19; Luke 24 : 47) . Accord- 
ing to Luke, then, Jesus had a distinctly friendly 
attitude toward non-Jews and more than once took 
occasion to compare Jew and Gentile in a way 
unfavorable to the Jew (Luke 4:25-27; 10:31-36; 
17:17-18; 7:9; but cf. Matt. 8:10). In so far 
then as Jesus surmounted national prejudices and 
felt an affection for and desire to serve men of 
other nationalities than his own, he exemplified 
another of the leading principles of democracy, i.e., 
international and interracial friendliness, the wel- 
coming of the foreign-born to the same range of 
advantage and opportunity we create for ourselves 
and our children. 



About Democracy 127 

We have examined the Synoptic Gospels once 
more to see what in the teaching of Jesus corre- 
sponded to the ideas common now to democratic 
thinking. Taking the four topics, consideration of 
community good as a deciding factor in conduct, 
the importance and significance of the individual, 
equality of opportunity, and friendly attitude 
toward foreigners, we find hints in the teaching of 
Jesus which indicate that he held to these funda- 
mental principles of democracy, and which justify 
us in calling him the world 's Great Democrat. 



CHAPTER VIII 
WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT RELIGION 

Religion in Palestine. — In Palestine religion 
seems always to have been the topic of supreme 
interest. The wars the Jews fought there were 
mainly religious wars. The greatness of Israel's 
great men nearly always was in some way connected 
with their religion. Yet we must remember that 
Israel did not have a monopoly of religion; all the 
surrounding nations had their religions, too. We 
should be able to infer this, even if we had no direct 
evidence, for historians and anthropologists find 
that religion of some sort exists in every society. 
It has been said that mankind is " incurably 
religious." Men seem always to be groping for 
God. Their inherent religious impulse expresses 
itself in crude or cultured ways according to the 
stage of their civilization and in keeping with their 
national character. We have, however, some few 
remains of these ancient neighboring religions and 
considerable reference to them in the Bible. These 
references show that the Jews regarded them as 
base and degrading. Doubtless they contained 
some noble elements, however. It may be asked 
why these religions died, while Judaism lived on. 
They have wholly disappeared, as have the people 

128 



About Religion 129 

who held them. Yet the Jews and the Jewish 
religion survive. Why ? 

Jesus a great teacher of religion. — Jesus is 
accepted by Christians generally as the world's 
greatest teacher of religion. This conviction may 
exist, however, without its being based upon a 
thorough study of his religious teaching. Jesus 
founded a movement which at the present time 
modifies the religious thought of every third per- 
son on earth. What explains the extraordinary 
impulse he gave? Did he teach something that 
will fire us with enthusiasm as it fired people twenty 
centuries ago ? Can we present an appeal today 
that will grip as his appeal gripped? Much of 
what Jesus says about religion is in connection with 
his teaching about the Kingdom, already studied. 
He never uses the term religion itself. It occurs 
rarely in the Bible, anyway, Acts 26:5; Col. 2: 18; 
Jas. 1 : 26, 27, only in the Greek; cf. also Gal. 1 : 13, 
14 in the English translation. 

THE TEACHING IN MARK 

Summary of Mark's report. — Taking up Jesus' 
teaching concerning religion as it is presented in 
Mark we find that Jesus demands repentance and 
acceptance of his views of the near approach of the 
Kingdom (1:14). Repentance we may define as 
regret, resulting in revised behavior. The demand 
for national repentance was in keeping with the 



130 What Jesus Taught 

current conviction that if Israel would for one day 
do Jehovah 's will the Messiah would come. Call- 
ing Peter and Andrew to discipleship, Jesus says 
they shall become " fishers of men," that is, men 
who will present the Kingdom appeal to other men 
(1:17). Jesus defends his association with non- 
respectable people by the remark that they were 
the sort who needed him (2:15-17). Being ques- 
tioned as to his disciple 's disregard of the customary 
days of fasting, he says that it would not be appro- 
priate to their present joyous feelings, thus setting 
up the principle of sincerity, viz., that one's 
religious ceremonies should correspond to one's 
actual feeling (2:18-22). He justified what the 
scrupulous Pharisees regarded as Sabbath desecra- 
tion by the far-reaching principle of consideration 
for human good (2:23-27; 3:1-6). For so pro- 
foundly sensible and humanitarian a view as this 
ecclesiastics plotted his death ! (3:6.) He regards 
those who do God's will, i.e., the Kingdom-people, 
as more closely related to him than those of his 
own flesh and blood (3:31-35). In reply to the 
criticism that some of his disciples were eating with- 
out the customary religious ceremony of washing 
their hands, he denounces those who are clever at 
evading natural duties under the pretense of being 
devoted to religion, and enunciates the principle 
that real degradation is spiritual, being promoted, 
not by neglect of some trivial ceremony, but by the 



About Religion 131 

cherishing of impure and vicious thoughts (7 : 5-23). 
Jesus predicts his own suffering, rejection, death, 
and resurrection, and challenges his followers to 
follow him in giving up their lives (8:31-38). At 
Capernaum, Jesus is led by a dispute between the 
disciples to rebuke their egotism by the remark 
that the self-seeker would get the lowest place 
(9:33-35). This is the obverse of his emphasis 
upon humility as a path to promotion, which is 
elsewhere given in both its phases (Luke 14:11; 
18:14). In answer to a question about divorce 
Jesus traces marriage to the original creation of 
human beings, basing his argument upon the use of 
the words "male and female" in Gen. 1 : 27, his con- 
clusion being that since at the beginning God created 
a human pair, it was adulterous for married couples 
to separate and marry members of other couples. 
The permission to do this granted by the Mosaic 
Law he regards as a concession to the stubborn and 
intractable dispositions of men (10:2-12). Jesus 
evidently thought of monogamy as the original form 
of marriage. Questioned by a wealthy man as to 
the way to secure eternal life, Jesus mentions six of 
the Ten Commandments. Upon learning that the 
man had kept these Jesus suggests that he give 
away his wealth and become one of his disciples. 
The man is unable or unwilling to do this and goes 
sadly away. Jesus remarks upon the difficulty rich 
men have in entering the Kingdom and asserts that 



132 What Jesus Taught 

all who make any sacrifice for the Kingdom 's sake 
will be fully repaid even before the Kingdom is 
established, while after it is established they will 
share in its eternal blessedness (10:23-31). In 
regard to those who are eager for prominence and 
leadership Jesus again says that among his disciples 
such ambition is to be curbed by giving the self- 
seeker the most menial sort of service. His own 
purpose, he said, was not to dominate men, but to 
serve them, and to die for their sakes. He regarded 
his death as a necessary part of the Kingdom pro- 
gram. Without it the Kingdom would not come, 
and the Kingdom-people would not be rescued from 
the then present age to the age of blessedness to be 
introduced when the Kingdom was completely 
established (10:35-36). Jesus regards undoubting 
confidence in prayer as a guaranty that the thing 
prayed for will occur (11:23-24). God's forgive- 
ness of a man 's sins is conditioned upon that man 's 
forgiveness of those who have wronged him (n: 
24-25). Going into the Temple, Jesus violently 
interferes with the business being carried on there, 
and denounces it as a misuse of a place intended for 
worship (11:15-18). Questioned as to his right to 
do this, he astutely confounds his critics and refuses 
to answer (11:2 7-33) . When enemies try to induce 
him to show disloyalty to the Roman emperor he 
evades the negative answer they were expecting 
from him, and replies in a fashion that leaves no 



About Religion 133 

handle for criticism by demanding the fulfilment of 
both political and religious duty (12:13-17). He 
thus refuses to commit himself as to what course 
should be followed in this particular case where 
political and religious duties were thought to con- 
flict, leaving that to their own moral judgment to 
decide, but implying that both duties were real. 
He asserts that in the next life human beings will 
be like angels (sexless ?) and marriage unknown. 
That there is a future life he argues from Exod. $\6, 
holding that the statement "I am the God of Abra- 
ham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" 
indicates that these patriarchs who had lived long 
before were then still alive (12:18-27). The com- 
mands to love God and one 's neighbor Jesus regards 
as the most important in the Jewish law (12 : 28, 34). 
He denounces the business cruelty and religious 
ostentation of the Scribes (12:38-40), while he 
praises a widow who gave out of her poverty to the 
Temple offering (12:41-44). The disciples may 
expect to be arrested, beaten, and put on trial, 
hated by members of their own family, but are to 
be steadfast and without anxiety, trusting the Holy 
Spirit to give them the words they shall use in 
their defense (13 : 9-13). At the Last Supper Jesus 
again alludes to his death and its connection with 
the Kingdom program (14 : 24). The closing scenes 
of Mark's Gospel relate action rather than record 
teaching. They show though, how to the last 



134 What Jesus Taught 

Jesus lived true to his religion. The scene in Geth- 
semane shows how he followed out his own em- 
phasis upon doing the will of God (14:32-42). He 
readily submits to arrest because he regards it 
as a part of the foreordained program of his life 
(14:43-49). He asserts his messiahship before the 
Jewish Council (14:61-62). At the end his sense 
of God's support, which doubtless had been the 
secret of the strength of his life, temporarily 
failed him (15:34). After the resurrection he 
sends out his followers to Christianize the world 
(16:15). 

Recapitulation. — In summarizing what Jesus 
taught about religion as it is preserved in Mark we 
may say that he is never represented as discussing 
religion formally and never uses that term, that 
much of what he thought and taught about religion 
must be gathered from his actions, and that his 
teaching about religion was an integral part of his 
teaching about the Kingdom. Religion, to Jesus, 
meant repentance, belief in his Kingdom message, 
attempt to interest others in the Kingdom, associa- 
tion with irreligious and non-respectable people for 
the sake of helping them, sincerity in religious cere- 
monial, consideration for human good rather than 
meticulous observance of legal rules as the control- 
ling principle of behavior, the sharing in the doing 
of God 's will as constituting a closer bond than that 
of kinship, inward, spiritual Tightness as contrasted 



About Religion 135 

with religious pretense, his own death as a necessary 
event in the establishment of the Kingdom, and 
that of the disciples as a probable one, suppression 
of selfish ambition, preservation of the marriage tie, 
keeping of the Ten Commandments, sacrifice for 
the Kingdom 's sake, prayer with undoubting confi- 
dence, forgiveness of others as the basis of one 's 
own forgiveness, reverence for sacred places, fulfil- 
ment of both civil and religious duties, a belief 
in the future life, whole-hearted love to God and 
one's neighbor, self-denying giving, steadfastness 
and freedom from anxiety in danger. 

THE TEACHING IN MATTHEW 

Summary of Matthew's report. — The first sen- 
tence Matthew ascribes to Jesus (3:15), though 
not perhaps a distinctly religious teaching, has to 
do with a religious ceremony. John the Baptist 
recognizes Jesus' superiority before the baptism 
(for another view, cf. John 1:33) and is reluctant 
to baptize him. Jesus admits the force of John's 
objection but argues that submission to baptism on 
his part is exemplary, though unnecessary. This 
passage has been thought to be an early Christian 
attempt to meet the difficulty of explaining why 
Jesus was baptized, showing that in his case it had 
no reference to the forgiveness of sins, but that it 
was a superfluous act of righteousness done by 
Jesus as an example to others. 



136 What Jesus Taught 

Matthew's account of the temptation is much 
fuller than Mark's and in it we find the first reli- 
gious teaching ascribed to Jesus in this Gospel (4 : 1- 
10). In the first temptation he quotes Deut. 8:3 
as an argument that it is not essential that one have 
bread to eat. Other things may do as well if God 
chooses to substitute them, as he did in providing 
the manna for the Israelites (4:4). This is Jesus' 
familiar doctrine of submission to and trust in the 
Father. Bread is not essential. Man's attitude 
should not be one of demand for anything, but of 
acquiescence in what the Father provides. 

In the second temptation Jesus quotes Deut. 
6: 16 against the suggestion that he leap down from 
the Temple. With Deut. 6:16 cf. Exod. 17:2, 7, 
which explains what was there meant by " tempt- 
ing" Jehovah, viz., trying his patience, exasperating 
him by complaint. As used here the term " tempt " 
would seem to mean experiment with, subject to 
an unnecessary test. This Jesus is resolved to 
avoid. 

In the third temptation Jesus quotes Deut. 
6:13, inserting the word a only" and making the 
point of the passage to be that ancient Scripture 
commanded worship to be limited to Jehovah alone. 

The religious teaching with which Jesus began 
his ministry according to both Mark and Matthew 
was the call to repentance in view of the near 
approach of the Kingdom (cf. Mark 1:14). His 



About Religion 137 

teaching in general on his tours about Galilee had 
to do with the Kingdom (4 : 23). In the Sermon on 
the Mount (chaps. 5-7) we have the longest and 
fullest religious discourse ascribed to Jesus in any 
of the Synoptic Gospels. Our previous study of 
what Jesus taught about civilization helps us to 
understand it. It begins with a series of congratu- 
lations to those classes of people who are to become 
members of the Kingdom. These are the humble, 
the troubled, the self-effacing, the spiritually dis- 
satisfied, the lenient, the clean-minded, the mediat- 
ing, and those who endure misunderstanding and 
intolerant treatment because of their adherence to 
Jesus (5:3-12). They cannot help being conspic- 
uous, and are to make sure that their influence is 
wholesome (5:13-16). Jesus denies that he is an 
iconoclast as respects the Jewish law. He fully 
believes in its perpetual validity and his followers 
will be rated according to the respect they show for 
it. They must be even more punctilious than the 
Scribes and Pharisees if they are to enter the King- 
dom (5:17-20). To illustrate this principle he 
applies it to several concrete examples, viz., murder, 
adultery, perjury, revenge, nationalism, in each case 
extending the Mosaic statute. Thus he condemns 
not only murder, but anger and contemptuous 
and insulting epithets which lead to murder. So 
important is it to prevent the growth of ill-feeling 
that one must even break off from a religious cere- 



138 What Jesus Taught 

mony to set one 's self right with a man whose feel- 
ings one has offended. Every effort is to be made 
to speed up the rebuilding of friendly relations (5 : 
21-26). Notice what stress Jesus lays on the 
faculty of getting along with people. As to adul- 
tery, again Jesus condemns not only the act itself, 
but the cherishing of lustful thoughts that lead to 
the act (cf. also 15:11, 18-20; Mark 7:20-23). 
Whatever induces these is to be avoided, even at 
severe sacrifice. It is not impossible that Jesus 
here intends to recommend submission to castra- 
tion from ascetic motives. Compare on this point 
Matt. 19:1 1-1 2. Divorce is not permissible except 
upon the ground of the wife's unchastity, and to 
marry a woman who has been divorced is sinful. 
Compare also Matt. 19:9, where the addition is 
made that remarriage is forbidden to the husband 
who has divorced his wife unless he divorced her 
upon the ground of unchastity. Note that in the 
earlier Gospel Mark (10:11) no exception is made, 
and remarriage after divorce is forbidden to both 
the divorced parties. Luke 16:18 gives Jesus' 
statement in the same form as Mark. It is thought 
the words " except for fornication" are an insertion 
made by Matthew and that the severer statements 
of Mark and Luke correctly represent Jesus ' view. 
Note that in any case here as in the other instances 
Jesus ' teaching is an advance upon the Mosaic re- 
quirements. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 had permitted 



About Religion 139 

the husband to divorce his wife in case she proved 
unsatisfactory, and also permitted her to marry a 
second time, only forbidding her to go back to her 
first husband in case her second husband should die 
or divorce her. Jesus holds that the remarriage of a 
divorced woman is illegitimate. Elsewhere (p. 131) 
we have noted what argument Jesus offered in 
support of his conviction of the indissolubility of 
marriage. In respect to perjury Jesus points out 
that it is futile to use oaths because the things sworn 
by are outside of the control of the man using the 
oath. Heaven, earth, Jersualem, even the color of 
a single hair of his own head, he outside the sphere 
of his control. Men should therefore abstain from 
oaths altogether, simple "yes" and "no" being 
strong enough (5:33-37). It is to be noted that 
the reference is not to cursing or profane language, 
but to the use of some phrase supposed to guarantee 
the truth of what one says, like our "so help me, 
God." Once more Jesus extends the Mosaic Law, 
and instead of saying that men must not fail to tell 
the truth when they have sworn to do so, rules that 
men must tell the truth all the time. Compare 
also Jas. 5:12. As to the Mosaic law limiting 
retaliation to an equivalent of that which one had 
suffered, Jesus would eliminate retaliation alto- 
gether, and have men return only good to those 
who have injured them, and yield without resist- 
ance to those who choose to impose upon them 



140 What Jesus Taught 

(5 : 33~4 2 - See fuller note on p. 108). In regard to 
racial distinctions Jesus taught that his followers ' 
good will was not to be limited to their fellow- Jews, 
but to extend to foreigners and an ti- Semites. In 
the breadth of their good will they were to be like 
the heavenly Father who paid no attention to 
nationality in his bestowing of sunlight and rain. 
To limit their friendliness to those of their own 
circle would be to adopt a standard no higher than 
that of tax-collectors and foreigners, who were com- 
monly most despised (5:43-48). Thus by all these 
illustrations Jesus supports his assertion that his 
teaching does not lower but raises the standards of 
the earlier religious teaching revered by the Jews. 
He insists upon an extension, not an abrogation, of 
Mosaic morality. It may help us to fix this in 
mind by reflecting that the sign of the cross is the 
plus sign, too. 

Turning now to another topic, he shows what 
must be the controlling motive for his followers as 
they express their religion by the ordinary methods 
of charity, prayer, and fasting. All these are to 
be performed not with ostentatious publicity to 
impress other men and win their applause, but 
secretly and to gain the inner sense of God's 
approval (6:1-16). The same consideration will 
apply to their acquirement of property. 

The Kingdom and their place in the Kingdom is 
to become life's controlling motive. The acquisi- 



About Religion 141 

tion of property and the anxiety for the future that 
prompts it are both to be avoided. Since God pro- 
vides for the needs of birds and wild flowers, he may 
safely be trusted to provide for the needs of those 
who occupy themselves wholly with the promotion 
of the Kingdom (6:19-34). The rest of the ser- 
mon (7:1-27) is given to a number of apparently 
unrelated topics ending with a final appeal to his 
hearers to accept his teaching and build their con- 
duct for the future upon it in order that when the 
catastrophes that form a part of the messianic 
program come, they may survive. Of these unre- 
lated topics there are seven: (1) God's judgment 
will be based upon men's judgment of each other. 
It is the part of wisdom then to study one's own 
faults rather than those of others (7 : 1-5). (2) The 
Kingdom-people are not to waste their teaching 
upon the unsusceptible (7:6). (3) Men grant the 
requests of their fellows ; it is the more certain that 
God will answer prayer (7:7-11). (4) The rule of 
one's treatment of others is to be the thought of 
how one would one's self like to be treated in the 
circumstances (7:12). (5) Admission to the King- 
dom involves difficulty and limitation, and few will 
succeed in entering it (7 : 13-14). (6) His followers 
are to be on their guard against impostors. At the 
messianic judgment Jesus will himself expose them 
and pronounce their doom (7:15-23). (7) Those 
who give heed to Jesus' teachings and act upon 



142 What Jesus Taught 

them will survive the calamities of this coming 
judgment, those who do not will be destroyed (7: 
24-27). 

In Matt. 9:12 as elsewhere in the gospels (e.g., 
Matt. 11 : 19; Luke 15:2) Jesus is criticized for his 
association with disreputable classes. But in Mat- 
thew (9:13) he adds to his defense a quotation of 
Hos. 6:6, one of the high peaks of Hebrew religion 
as represented by the Prophets. The same passage 
is assigned to him in another connection in Matt. 
12:7. Such a verse would be well in keeping with 
Jesus' disregard for the formalities of religion and 
his insistence upon its realities. Jesus feels that the 
people generally are ready to accept the Kingdom 
message, but that there are few to proclaim it, and 
urges the disciples to pray God to increase their 
number (9:37, $&). The whole of the tenth chap- 
ter of Matthew is devoted to the instructions given 
the Twelve before they are sent out upon a mission 
tour. They were to avoid all except Jews. They 
were to announce that the Kingdom was near and 
perform miracles. They were to depend on the 
populace for food. Should they be turned away 
from any home or village a curse would fall upon 
that place at the messianic judgment. They could 
expect arrest and scourging, and trial before impor- 
tant rulers, but were to make no preparation before- 
hand for defense. Their teaching would provoke 
murder. They would be detested and persecuted. 



About Religion 143 

Before they had completed the round of the Jewish 
cities, the messianic judgment would have come. 
They could expect to be treated as Jesus himself 
had been treated, but were not to fear even death. 
God would take note of their sufferings and at the 
messianic judgment Jesus would publicly acknowl- 
edge them as his followers, while those who had 
refused allegiance to him, he would disown. So 
far from being a peace-bringer he declares himself a 
social firebrand and demands from his followers 
devotion to the bitter death. The slightest kind- 
nesses shown them by others will be fitly rewarded 
(10:1-42). 

In answer to a charge that his disciples broke 
the Sabbath, Jesus argues that whatever is helpful 
to men is legitimate on that day (12:1-14). In 
criticism of the people of his time he uses as an 
illustration the case of a demon which has been 
exorcised, but which returns to its victim bringing 
seven worse demons with it so that the man is worse 
off than before, the point being that a future worse 
than the present was ahead of his listeners (12:43- 
45). Incidentally, however, this passage gives an 
example of Jesus' ideas in regard to demoniacal 
possession as represented in the gospels. Other of 
Jesus ' religious teachings are the foredoom of insti- 
tutions not founded by God (15:13; cf. also Acts 
5:34—35, 38, 39); the power of faith to produce 
changes in nature (17 : 20) ; importance of avoiding 



144 What Jesus Taught 

any injury to his followers, who have angels to repre- 
sent their case before God and whom God cares for 
as a shepherd cares for his sheep (18:5-14). He 
outlines a plan for the settlement of personal diffi- 
culties among his followers (18:15-18). The con- 
certed prayer of two of his disciples is certain to be 
answered (18:19). God's forgiveness of men is 
contingent upon their forgiveness of others (18: 
21-35). I n ^e Kingdom there is to be a complete 
reversal of ordinary standards (20:1-16). While 
in gentile society honor is paid those who have 
power to dominate others, among the disciples 
honor is to be won by service (20:25-27). Jesus 
holds that the sanctity of the Temple should be 
preserved (21:12-13). He thinks of the life after 
death as a condition where marriage will no longer 
obtain (22:23-30). He uses Exod. 3:6 as a proof 
of the continuance of life after death (22:31-33). 
In reply to a question put by a Pharisee, Jesus sums 
up the whole of Jewish religious teaching in love to 
God and one's neighbor (22:34-40). 

Almost the whole of chapter 23 is devoted to a 
denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees, the 
main charges against them being their failure to do 
themselves that which they required others to do, 
their ostentation and vanity (vss. 1-12), their 
hostility to the Kingdom- teaching (vs. 13), their 
mistaken zeal in proselyting (vs. 15), their hair- 
splitting distinctions (vss. 16-22), their neglect of 






About Religion 145 

great matters in their insistence upon small ones 
(vss. 23-24), their hypocrisy (vss. 27-28), their 
resistance to the religious leaders God had sent 
(vss. 29-36). 

The twenty-fourth chapter is similar to Mark, 
chapter 13, and Luke, chapter 24, and describes 
the catastrophes that will precede the coming of 
the Son of Man. These will be the destruction of 
the Temple, a general reign of terror marked by 
wars, famines, earthquakes, the rise of false leaders, 
hatred, betrayal, delusion, and apostasy. Before 
the end comes the gospel of the Kingdom is to be 
preached to all nations. Then there will be por- 
tents in the sky, and the Son of Man will appear in 
the clouds with his angels, who will assemble the 
Kingdom-people from all parts of the earth. All 
this is to take place during his own generation. 
His coming as Son of Man will be sudden and unex- 
pected and will bring terrible destruction to the 
unfaithful. 

Further illustrating the suddenness and irre- 
vocability of his coming, and as a warning against 
neglect of the intervening time of opportunity, 
Jesus tells the parables of the Ten Virgins and the 
one- talent man. A vivid picture of the messianic 
judgment follows (25:31-46) where it appears that 
the basal consideration is to be the treatment 
which has been given to the Jews. In the scene in 
Gethsemane we see Jesus living the doctrine he 



146 What Jesus Taught 

frequently taught, that of submission to God 's will 
(26:36-46), and in his arrest and later in the trial 
we see his own example of non-resistance (26:47- 
52). He accepts the whole experience as preor- 
dained and described in Scripture. He does not 
need Peter 's defense, but were it not God 's will for 
him to be thus humiliated he could call to his assist- 
ance not merely twelve men, but more than twelve 
legions (some 72,000) angels. The last word 
Matthew ascribes to Jesus before his death is the 
pathetic and despairing cry, "My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me?" (27:46.) After 
the resurrection he meets the disciples at a moun- 
tain in Galilee and gives them the " Great Commis- 
sion," directing them to continue to preach the 
Kingdom message until the end of the age (28: 
16-20). 

Recapitulation. — Undertaking now to sum up 
Matthew's presentation of Jesus' teaching about 
religion, we find Jesus represented as familiar with 
the Book of Deuteronomy, and quoting it in crucial 
moments; as preaching repentance and the near 
approach of the Kingdom; as depicting the char- 
acter of the Kingdom-people; as asserting his 
regard for the Mosaic Law and extending its obliga- 
tions to the realm of thought and intention; as 
emphasizing Tightness in human relationships, even 
to the interruption of religious ceremonies, and 
making this Tightness the basis of forgiveness with 



About Religion 147 

God; as urging a good will that ignores racial 
distinctions; as decrying ostentation in religious 
habits ; as making life 's central passion devotion to 
the Kingdom with consequent freedom from anxi- 
ety as to other matters; as expressing faith in 
prayer based upon the fatherly character of God; 
as cautioning his followers against misspending 
energy upon the un teachable; as making the treat- 
ment one would desire from others the guide to 
one's treatment of others; as making religion a 
thing of the spirit, not of ceremony; as limiting his 
own and his disciples' ministry to the Jewish 
people; as warning his disciples of the persecutions 
they will suffer; as forecasting national calamities 
for his nation; as believing in the certain failure of 
institutions which are not of divine origin; as mak- 
ing service the path to leadership; as affirming that 
the Temple was to be kept sacred to religious uses ; 
as believing in life after death and to some extent 
describing its conditions ; as summing up the whole 
of Jewish ethical and religious teaching in the 
formula of love for God and neighbor; as excoriat- 
ing the Scribes and Pharisees for their ostentation 
and wrong-headedness ; as predicting in vivid 
apocalyptic phrases the catastrophes which would 
be the precursors of his return as the Son of Man, 
and the messianic judgment that would follow it; 
as warning against misuse of the intervening 
period and unpreparedness at his return; as accept- 



148 What Jesus Taught 

ing the incidents of his arrest and death as preor- 
dained and submissively to be undergone. 

THE TEACHING IN LUKE 

Summary of Luke's report. — Luke preserves an 
account of one of Jesus ' boyhood experiences, and 
the first words he ascribes to him are those of his 
reply to his mother's questioning: "How is it that 
ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in 
my Father's house?" (2:41-51.) This has been 
taken to indicate that Jesus had not only an 
extraordinary precocity in religious matters, but an 
unusual sense of relatedness to God, and it would 
appear that the story is told with the intention of 
producing this effect. For a parallel to Jesus' 
talking with the doctors of the law compare 
Josephus' Autobiography, where he tells how he 
himself when at the age of about fourteen years 
used to be consulted by the high priests and leading 
citizens who would come frequently to him in a 
body to get his opinion on knotty questions of 
Jewish law. 

In Luke's narrative of the temptation (4:1-12) 
the order of the temptations is bread, kingdoms, 
Temple, while in Matthew it is bread, Temple, 
kingdoms. The same passages of Scripture are 
quoted as in Matthew, already discussed. Luke 
has a fuller account of Jesus ' preaching at Nazareth 
(4:16-30) than those given in Mark 6:1-6 and 



About Religion 149 

Matt. 13 : 54-58, and while in Mark and Matthew 
the villagers are angered at the unusual gifts shown 
by a fellow-villager whose humble origin was well 
known, in Luke their anger arises from his pro- 
gentile attitude. In regard to the Sabbath, Jesus 
affirms by both act and teaching that acts of human 
kindness are legitimate upon that day (6:1-11). 
Luke 's Sermon on the Plain (6 : 20-49) gives part of 
the material Matthew preserves in the Sermon on 
the Mount, with some differences. Thus where 
Matthew says, " Blessed are the poor in spirit/' 
Luke says, " Blessed are the poor." The thirty- 
eighth verse is an addition, but on the whole the 
sermon in Luke is much shorter than in Matthew. 
Parts of the sermon are scattered through the 
eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and sixteenth chap- 
ters of Luke. The Lord's Prayer, e.g., occurs in a 
different setting (11:1-4) than in Matt. 6:9-13. 
Luke has some sayings of Jesus which neither Mark 
nor Matthew presents, e.g., the fine sentiment in 
11:41 which recalls the " Vision of Sir Launfal" 
and the words "the gift without the giver is bare." 
Luke alone tells the story of the Good Samaritan 
(10:25-37). The whole parable of the Foolish 
Rich Man (12:13-21) is also peculiar to Luke. 
Notice how much of Jesus' teaching about money 
appears in Luke 's Gospel, so much that it has been 
sometimes thought to show the influence of the 
Ebionites, an early Christian sect whose teachings 



150 What Jesus Taught 

glorified poverty. It might seem more probable 
that they drew upon Luke to support their views 
than that their emphasis influenced the Gospel, 
were it not known that the only gospel they 
accepted was that of Matthew. A number of 
scholars have written upon this topic, reaching 
varying conclusions. Some member of the dis- 
cussion group should make a careful collection and 
interpretation of the passages in Luke relating to 
wealth and poverty and report his findings to the 
group, or undertake this later as a piece of inde- 
pendent study. We should spare no pains to find 
out as exactly as we can what Jesus taught. Luke 
gives in 13 : 1-10 examples of Jesus' teaching which 
no other evangelist records, though these are per- 
haps political rather than religious in their intent. 
Jesus expects a general calamity to befall Israel as 
a result of its failure to repent (13:1-5), illustrat- 
ing further by the parable of the barren fig tree 
(13 : 6-9) . We cannot be sure whether the impend- 
ing national calamity is thought of as a destruction 
of the nation by the Romans brought on by the 
Jewish revolutionary spirit (zealotism), or whether 
it is regarded as to be sent upon his hearers by God 
as a punishment for their irreligion. In any case, 
repentance alone will prevent the disaster. Jesus ' 
free attitude toward the Sabbath is shown in the 
account of the cure of a demon-possessed woman 
(13:10-17) on that day, and the argument Jesus 



About Religion 151 

adduces. Another incident with the same motive 
follows (14: 1-6). Jesus satirizes the vanity of his 
fellow-guests at a feast and advises humility (14: 
7-1 1 ; cf. Prov. 25:7). Those who give banquets 
should invite the poor who can make no return, 
such an act being rewarded in the future life (14: 
12-14). The fifteenth chapter of Luke contains 
some of Jesus' best-known religious teaching and 
hardly any of it appears in the other gospels, though 
the same criticism which calls it out appears else- 
where and is more briefly answered by Jesus (Mark 
2:16-17; Matt. 9:11-12; Luke 5:30-32). The 
parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the 
Prodigal Son are all aimed at the Pharisees and 
Scribes, and intended as a rebuke of their religious 
exclusiveness, Jesus' contention being that God 
cared more about the people they held in contempt 
than he cared about them. It is said they had a 
saying, " There is joy before God when those who 
provoke him perish from the world." Jesus' asser- 
tion is, " There is joy before God when those who 
provoke him repent." One represents the hard, 
proud, narrow legalistic attitude of a self-congrat- 
ulating religionist, the other the exasperation 
aroused by it in one who really understood and 
cared for men. Some questions may help make us 
clear on Jesus ' teaching here. Does he mean that 
God is better pleased with one thief who becomes an 
honest man than with ninety-nine honest men who 



152 What Jesus Taught 

have never been thieves? Is this putting a pre- 
mium on honesty or on thievery? Does Jesus 
speak ironically when he mentions "men who need 
no repentance " ? Or is the point made in all these 
three parables the strong language of hyperbole? 
Does the elder brother represent the Scribes and 
Pharisees ? Is the emphasis and meaning generally 
put upon the parable of the Prodigal Son a whole- 
some one ? Is the work of religion on the whole to 
recall prodigal sons or to keep them from becoming 
prodigal sons? What is the object of religious 
work? 

In the parable of the Unjust Steward (16: 1-13) 
Luke gives a teaching none of the other gospels 
records. The point seems to be the same as that 
made in 12:33, an d 14*13-14? viz., use or dispose 
of wealth in such a way as to win advantage for 
yourself in the next life. In the parable of the 
Rich Man and Lazarus (16: 19-31) we have a phase 
of Jesus' teaching that only Luke mentions. The 
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew describes the 
doom of the rejected at the messianic judgment, 
but this passage in Luke attributes to Jesus a view 
as to the conditions of the after-life under ordinary 
circumstances. Note, too, that it reflects the 
hostility to wealth and glorification of poverty that 
is so marked a characteristic of this Gospel. The 
disciples are to think of their service only as a 
doing of duty (1 7 : 7-10). Luke 's Gospel emphasizes 



About Religion 153 

Jesus' sympathetic feeling for non- Jewish peoples. 
It is this which causes his rejection at Nazareth 
(4:16-30). The hero of the famous parable in 
10:30-36 was a Samaritan, while the two Jews in 
the story play a dishonorable part. He rebukes 
James and John when they meditate the destruc- 
tion of a Samaritan village (9: 51-55). Luke omits 
Jesus' directions to the disciples to avoid entering 
any gentile or Samaritan village and his limitation 
of his own ministry to the Jews (cf. Matt. 15:24), 
as well as the story of the Greek woman to whom 
Jesus speaks of the Gentiles as "dogs " (Mark 7:27; 
Matt. 15:26). So also in the account of the ten 
lepers (17 : n-19) the one whom Jesus approves is a 
Samaritan. 

Jesus foresees a period of terror and calamity 
before his return as the Son of Man (17:22-37). 
He urges persistency in prayer (18:1-8). He 
regards humility as necessary to the offering of 
acceptable prayer (18:9-14). He declares salva- 
tion has come to a man who has begun to right his 
social relationships (19:1-10). The time preced- 
ing his return as Son of Man is a period of 
opportunity, which may or may not be utilized 
(19:11-27). In the conversation on the road to 
Emmaus after the resurrection Jesus argues that 
his sufferings were predicted in the earlier Jewish 
literature (24:13-27). The same idea recurs later 
with the addition of an instruction to undertake 



154 What Jesus Taught 

a world-wide evangelistic effort beginning at Jeru- 
salem (24:47). 

Recapitulation. — Summarizing briefly Luke's 
record of what Jesus taught about religion we may- 
say this Gospel contains much we have noted 
already in the other gospels, though he has consider- 
able new material. He has eighteen parables that 
the other gospels do not mention. These largely 
emphasize ideas not contained in Mark and 
Matthew. Jesus ' religious precocity ; the extent of 
forgiveness as the measure of love; foreigners the 
object of Jesus' special favor; Jesus the recipient 
of special authority and knowledge from God; love 
for one 's neighbor to be shown by helping wherever 
there is need; prayer to be insistent; the folly of 
hoarding, and the use of money in such a way as to 
win a favorable place in the next life; the deliberate 
counting of the cost of discipleship ; God's delight 
in the conversion of sinners greater than his pleasure 
in the " righteous"; the depicting of the conditions 
of the tortured and the happy in the next life; a 
disciple's service only duty; successful prayer 
dependent on humility; the intervening period 
before Jesus' return one of opportunity for which 
the disciples will be held accountable; Jesus after 
his resurrection reproving the disciples for failing to 
interpret correctly the Old Testament predictions; 
these are all new elements which only Luke pre- 
sents. 



About Religion 155 

recapitulation of the teaching as given 
by mark, matthew, and luke 

Bringing together now our findings in Mark, 
Matthew, and Luke and arranging them under 
topics we discover : 

1. As to God: Jesus assumed the existence of 
God and believed him to be a heavenly Father, who 
is kindly, provident, aware of the smallest matters, 
impartial, all-powerful, interested in the establish- 
ment of the Kingdom, amenable to persuasion. 

2. As to prayer to God: Jesus himself prayed; 
he taught his disciples a form of prayer; he 
recommended that prayer be solitary; he be- 
lieved that undoubting confidence guaranteed the 
answer of prayer even to the extent of the up- 
rooting of trees and the transfer of mountains; he 
regarded persistence as certain to make prayer 
effectual. 

3. As to a future life: Jesus taught the doctrine 
of a future life, basing his argument for it, as is sup- 
posed, upon a verb in Exod. 3 : 6, and describing it 
to the extent of denying that in the future life the 
relationship of marriage is to continue. No indica- 
tion is given as to his idea of the manner or date of 
the resurrection except that it seems to precede his 
return as Son of Man. The life after death he 
thinks of as continuous, since the condition of those 
upon whom he pronounces judgment is that of 
eternal comfort or misery. 



156 What Jesus Taught 

4. As to sin and its forgiveness: Jesus regards 
himself as capable of forgiving sins; he empowers 
his disciples to do the same; he urges his hearers to 
be forgiving; he declares God's forgiveness of a 
man to be dependent upon that man's forgiving 
those who had injured him; to attribute the power 
residing in him to diabolic influence seems to him an 
unforgivable offense. 

5. As to salvation: Jesus uses the term salva- 
tion only once in the Synoptic Gospels (Luke 19:9) 
and designates by it participation in the Kingdom, 
the right to such participation resting in Zacchaeus ' 
case upon the two facts of his righting of his social 
relationship and of his Jewish nationality. Com- 
pare for the same nationalistic emphasis in regard 
to salvation the only other passage in which the 
term is ascribed to Jesus (John 4:22). 

6. As to character: Jesus lauded qualities usu- 
ally disparaged, such as voluntary poverty, sadness, 
lack of self-assertion, unpopularity, resignation to 
one's fate, non-resistance. Success according to 
Jesus' ideal did not consist in acquiring wealth or 
learning or control over men. It lay in confidence 
in the Father 's care, patient acceptance of his will, 
selfless service of others, absorption in the interests 
of the Kingdom. 

7. As to social relationships: Jesus' religion 
was one of personal relationships — of men to God 
and of men to men. His whole teaching centers in 



About Religion 157 

the concept of an ideal society, the Kingdom of 
God. Although according to the gospel representa- 
tions he expected this to be established in a super- 
natural and cataclysmic way, it was when com- 
pleted to be an earthly community, organized on 
the basis of the Jewish tribal divisions and com- 
posed of men of the Kingdom type. Moreover, in 
the intervening period before the Kingdom's 
establishment at his own return the disciples were 
to carry on a campaign of propaganda and win men 
to the Kingdom life, though, in so doing, some 
would, like himself, suffer persecution and death. 
Out of what Jesus taught about religion have 
come the great ideas of universal friendliness 
between men and universal reverence toward God, 
that are expressed in the phrases, the fatherhood of 
God, and the brotherhood of men. Brotherhood 
is now taking on more of the technical, concrete 
meaning. As there is the Brotherhood of Loco- 
motive Engineers, there will some day be a Brother- 
hood of Man — a league of humanity organized for 
mutual protection, improvement, and self-help. 
This will be the next step toward the realization of 
Jesus' great ideal. 



CHAPTER IX 
WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT HIMSELF 

The teaching of Jesus, and the teaching about 
Jesus. — The literature that springs up about 
any great leader consists of three elements, being 
the record or discussion of his acts, his ideas, and 
the views held about him by others. It is easy to 
see how these may blend into each other so that 
his action expresses ideas, and the views of parti- 
sans insensibly color the record of his own teaching. 
Thus it is often pointed out that in the gospels we 
have both the teaching of Jesus and the teaching 
about Jesus. To separate them is a subtle task, 
and one in which the personal equation is likely to 
determine the conclusion. It is sometimes said 
that "Jesus stands head and shoulders above his 
reporters," and that we are to attribute to Jesus 
such teachings as could not have come from any 
lesser person, and relieve him of any which fall 
below our feeling of what is appropriate to his char- 
acter. This, it is obvious, makes our view of what 
Jesus taught on any point to be governed not by all 
the evidence available, but by what is in keeping 
with our ideal. For a study such as ours, as we 
agreed in the beginning, it is better to take all the 
evidence the Synoptic Gospels give on every point 

158 



About Himself 159 

and build it into a compact statement, and, as 
inferences are likely to vary, leave each member of 
the discussion group to draw his own. More 
important than immediate conclusions and formu- 
lated opinions is the impartial consideration of evi- 
dence. We shall therefore examine the gospels to 
see what they record as Jesus ' teaching about him- 
self. 

Our method. — For brevity's sake we must use 
such phrases as Jesus teaches, Jesus thinks, Jesus 
believes, etc., meaning, as throughout all our dis- 
cussions, that as we understand the gospel passages 
they represent Jesus as so teaching, thinking, 
believing, etc. 

THE TEACHING IN MARK 

Summary of Mark's report. — Mark tells of 
Jesus' baptism, temptation, and early Kingdom 
preaching in Galilee without mention of any teach- 
ing of Jesus about himself. The first instance of 
this comes in Jesus' choice of Simon and Andrew 
to be his disciples or students (1:17). Compare 
the familiar story of how Socrates called Xenophon 
by barring the young man's way in a narrow pas- 
sage with his staff and asking where this and that 
could be bought, ending with, "Where can Wisdom 
be bought?" Upon Xenophon saying he did not 
know, Socrates said, "Come with me and I will 
teach you." Thus in this first statement, "Come 



160 What Jesus Taught 

you after me, and I will make you to become fishers 
of men," Jesus shows a belief in his power to lead 
men and gives evidence of having a thought-out 
plan of action. This self-confidence is also shown 
in his teaching (1:22). He feels the pressure of his 
duty to present the Kingdom message from village 
to village (1:38). He tries in vain to avoid pub- 
licity (1 : 43-45). He calls himself the Son of Man 
and claims to have the power of forgiving sins, 
using a healing to substantiate his claim (2 : 10-11). 
As to the meaning of the term Son of Man, opinions 
differ. Some scholars regard it as a name for the 
expected Messiah which was in popular use at the 
time, and which Jesus adopted and applied to him- 
self. Others question whether there is sufficient 
evidence to show that it was thus used before Jesus' 
time and incline to the view that Jesus employed 
the term in a sense based on its Old Testament use, 
meaning by it to say, "I am a Man," that is, that 
he thought of himself as representative of all the 
qualities and subject to all the obligations that 
obtain, not merely in the case of an individual man, 
but of all humanity. The difficulty lies in the lack 
of evidence as to contemporary usage. The Old 
Testament furnishes no example of the term the 
"Son of Man" as a title for the Messiah or any 
other person. Ezekiel is called Son of Man (33 : 1, 
7, 10, and elsewhere), and the term is sometimes 
used in a poetic way, meaning humanity, mankind 



About Himself 161 

(Ps. 8:4; Dan. 7:13). In the gospels it is used 
only by Jesus and in reference to himself. Aside 
from the Old and New Testaments we must 
depend largely upon the evidence of the Book of 
Enoch. In it the phrase Son of Man occurs fre- 
quently as a name for the Messiah. Professor 
R. H. Charles, who has edited this book and is 
a foremost scholar in the field of apocalyptic litera- 
ture, dates those portions of the book which con- 
tain this term (the so-called Similitudes) about 
105-64 B.C. 1 

Jesus thinks of his mission as limited to a 
definite class among the Jews, viz., the "sinners," 
that is, those who were lax in their religious observ- 
ances (2:17). Jesus regards the joy or sadness of 
the disciples as being controlled by his own presence 
or absence (2:18-22). It is possible that in his 
reference to the Sabbath (2 : 28) he is asserting, not 
his own personal superiority to the Sabbath legis- 
lation, but the general truth that the interests of 
mankind take precedence over punctilio in religious 
customs. He asserts himself as a leader in appoint- 
ing the Twelve as field preachers and exorcists 
(3:13-19). Consciousness of his unique powers is 
shown in 3:27. He has the highest reverence for 
that influence of God under which he works and by 
which he is empowered (3:28-30). He is aston- 
ished at and thwarted by the resistance of his 

1 See Charles, The Book of Enoch, 2d ed., 191 2, p. xi. 



1 62 What Jesus Taught 

fellow- townsmen (6 : 1-6) . He sends out his twelve 
disciples in six pairs on a tour of preaching and 
healing (6:7-13). Jesus' fame spreads and he is 
thought to be John the Baptist or Elijah come to 
life again, or a new prophet (6 : 14-15). He speaks 
with aggressiveness and certitude (7:14). He 
thinks of his ministry as properly limited to the 
Jews (7:27). He tries again in vain to avoid 
publicity (7:36; cf. also 8:27). He expresses his 
pity for the hungry and weary crowds that have 
followed him (8:1-3). In Caesarea-Philippi in 
northern Palestine he questions the disciples as to 
the popular opinions concerning him, whereupon 
Peter declares his belief that Jesus is the Messiah 
(8 : 27-28) . This passage is often called the " Great 
Confession." Jesus now warns the disciples of his 
approaching rejection and death, and predicts his 
resurrection (8:31). He calls upon all who would 
be his disciples to make a full renunciation even of 
life itself (8:34). He enjoins the three not to tell 
what they have seen on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion until after the resurrection (9:9). He believes 
his sufferings to be foretold in Old Testament 
prophecy (9:12). He repeats his prediction of his 
arrest, death, and resurrection (9:31). Kindness 
shown a child he accepts as a kindness done to 
himself and as a service of God (9:37). Notice the 
similar passage in 10:13-16. He accepts as his 
supporters any who follow his principles, even 



About Himself 163 

though they may not attach themselves to the 
company of his disciples (9:38-40). Those who 
befriend or injure his disciples will be rewarded or 
punished (9 140-41). His sense of leadership shows 
itself strongly in his proposal to a rich man that he 
give his wealth to charity and become his disciple 
(10:17-22). At the same time he declines to be 
himself called "good" (10:18). He believes that 
those who sacrifice for his sake will be vastly 
rewarded later in the Kingdom (10:28-31). He 
again predicts his betrayal, death, and resurrec- 
tion (10 : 3 2-34) . He tests the willingness of James 
and John to undergo the sufferings he will himself 
endure, but disclaims ability to appoint them to the 
chief places in the Kingdom (10:35-40). His mis- 
sion is to serve and to give up his life for others (10: 
45). He plans a dramatic entry into Jerusalem 
and accepts the enthusiastic shoutings of his adher- 
ents (11 : 1-10). He blasts a fig tree because it has 
no fruit, although it was not the time of year for 
figs. Later he draws from the incident a lesson on 
the possibilities of undoubting prayer (11:12-14, 
20-24). By a shrewd question he silences his 
critics (11:27-32). In the parable of the Wicked 
Husbandmen he refers to himself as the son of the 
vineyard owner and forecasts his own death and 
subsequent triumph (12:1-12). 

From Ps. no : 1 Jesus argues that the Messiah is 
not to be thought of as a descendant of David, 



164 What Jesus Taught 

since David applies to him the respectful title of 
"Lord," which would be a reversal of the custom- 
ary relationship of respect between ancestor and 
descendant (12: 35-3 7). z He asserts his ignorance 
of the day of the catastrophic establishment of the 
Kingdom, but thinks of it as coming in a few years 
(13:32; cf. vs. 30). The act of the woman who 
anointed him is to be heralded over the whole world 
(14:3-9). He predicts his betrayal by one of the 
Twelve (14: 18-20), regarding it as the fulfilment of 
Scripture, but not considering the betrayer to be 
thereby relieved from responsibility (14:18-20). 
The bread and wine at the Last Supper are fore- 
tokens of his approaching doom (14:22-25). In 
Gethsemane he prays to be delivered from it, but is 
willing to undergo it if God wills (14:32-36), and 
recognizes that his hour has now come (14:41). 
He protests against his secret arrest, but sees in it a 
fulfilment of Scripture (14:48-49). At the trial 
Jesus declares himself the Messiah and predicts his 
return upon the clouds (14:61-62). On the cross 
he loses the sense of God's support (15:34). The 
present ending of Mark (16:9-20) is not regarded 
as the original ending of the Gospel. Other endings 

1 That Jesus understood the use of the rabbinic method of 
argument with its subtle interpretations of Scripture appears also 
in other passages: for example, his proof of the continued life of 
the dead, Mark 12:26-27; Luke 20:27, basing it on Exod. 3:6; 
his argument against divorce, Mark 10:5-8; Matt. 19:4-8, 
basing it on Gen. 1:27. 



About Himself 165 

exist, but none of these is thought to be the origi- 
nal. It is one of the romantic possibilities of New 
Testament science that some day the missing end- 
ing of Mark may be discovered. For complete- 
ness, however, let us add the evidence of this 
conclusion added by a later hand as to what Jesus 
taught about himself. After the resurrection he 
appears to the eleven, reproaches them for their 
tardiness in crediting his resurrection, instructs 
them to evangelize the world, and mentions 
the miraculous powers that shall be enjoyed by 
believers. 

Recapitulation. — Summarizing Jesus' teaching 
about nimself as it appears in Mark, we note that 
Jesus regards his personal mission as limited to the 
Jews, and tries to avoid publicity, though he later 
inaugurates a campaign of world-wide propaganda. 
He employs the Twelve in propagating the King- 
dom message. He is interested to know the popu- 
lar impression he is creating and elicits from Peter 
the "Great Confession." He repeatedly predicts 
his arrest, sufferings, and death. He calls himself 
the Son of Man and in various ways asserts his 
sense of his own significance. His mission is to 
save others at the cost of his own life. He regards 
certain incidents of his life as having been pre- 
dicted in the Old Testament. He asserts his 
messiahship and believes he will later return upon 
the clouds. 



1 66 What Jesus Taught 

the teaching in matthew 
Summary of Matthew's report. — Matthew, in 
the Sermon on the Mount, mentions Jesus' early 
recognition that the disciples' relation to himself 
was likely to entail persecution for them (5:11). 
He strongly asserts his loyalty to the Mosaic Law 
(5 : 17-20). He knows that men's welfare depends 
upon their acceptance of and action upon his teach- 
ings (7:24-27). He mentions his poverty (8:20), 
in the same connection demanding extreme devo- 
tion to his leadership (8:21-22). He asserts his 
power to forgive sins (9:6). He calls Matthew to 
discipleship by a simple command (10:9). His 
mission is to the non-religious (9:13). His pres- 
ence or absence makes or mars the disciples' joy 
(9:15). The tenth chapter of Matthew abounds 
in the use of the first person by Jesus. His general 
attitude is one of assertion and command. In 
response to John the Baptist's query as to whether 
he was the expected Messiah, Jesus calls attention 
to the miracles he performs and congratulates those 
who do not disagree with him (11 : 2-6). He refers 
to his own free habits in eating and drinking and the 
criticism it occasions (11:9). In a passage which 
sounds strangely like the Gospel of John, Jesus 
claims to be endowed with extraordinary authority 
and to be gifted with unique knowledge of God (11: 
26-27). He defends himself against the charge of 
being possessed by the chief of the demons, Beelze- 



About Himself 167 

bub, and denounces the suggestion as an unpardon- 
able sin (12:27-32). He declares himself greater 
than the prophet Jonah, greater even than King 
Solomon (12:41-42). Whoever does God's will 
he regards as closely related to himself (12:46-50). 
Jesus proclaims the Kingdom message (13:37). 
At the judgment Jesus will send forth angels over 
the earth to gather out all unsuitable persons from 
the Kingdom for destruction (13:41). To a gentile 
woman who asks him to exorcise a demon from her 
daughter Jesus replies that his mission is limited to 
the Jews (15 : 24). He expresses a strong feeling of 
sympathetic interest in the crowds that follow him 
(15:32). Near Caesarea-Philippi, Jesus inquires 
from the disciples what the popular view concerning 
himself is, and Peter declares his conviction that 
Jesus is the Messiah (16:13-16). This passage, it 
is pointed out, argues against the claim that Son of 
Man was a current phrase meaning Messiah. If 
Jesus had been calling himself constantly by a title 
which people in general would recognize as equiva- 
lent to Messiah, why would he regard Peter's recog- 
nition that he was Messiah as the result of a special 
revelation? Also why would he enjoin secrecy 
upon the disciples as to his messiahship ? (16 : 20.) 
Following Peter's "Great Confession" Jesus 
predicts his sufferings, death, and resurrection, and 
foresees his return accompanied by angels and act- 
ing as Judge of Mankind (16:21-28; 17:12, 22). 



1 68 What Jesus Taught 

To show kindness to a child is to show kindness to 
Jesus himself (18:5). Children were brought to 
Jesus with the request that he put his hands on 
them and pray. The disciples object, but Jesus 
instructs them that the children are not to be 
turned away (19:13-14). To a man who queries 
as to what good thing he shall do to insure eternal 
life Jesus suggests that God is the only one deserv- 
ing to be called good (19:17). Jesus' assertion of 
command over men is shown in his requirement that 
this man give his wealth to the poor and join Jesus ' 
band of wandering preachers (19:20). To the 
Twelve who have followed him Jesus promises 
thrones and tribal judgeships in the Kingdom, while 
all who have sacrificed for him are to be repaid a 
hundred times over besides becoming immortal 
(19:28-30). He describes in detail his approach- 
ing condemnation and execution (20:18-19). The 
authority of disposing the places of chief distinction 
in the Kingdom has not been committed to Jesus 
(20:23). In the same verse he alludes to his com- 
ing sufferings and intimates that James and John 
will ultimately share his own fate. His mission is 
to serve others by his life and death (19:28). 
Jesus ' astuteness in debate is shown in his defeat of 
the religious leaders who demand to know the 
source of his authority (2 1 : 24-2 7) . By the parable 
of the Wicked Husbandmen he asserts himself to 
be God's favorite representative and conveys a 



About Himself 169 

threat of coming disaster to those who reject his 
claims (21:33-46). He asserts his relation to the 
disciples to be that of a teacher and master (23:8, 
10). During the calamities that precede his return 
the disciples are to beware of impostors who will 
themselves perform miracles (24:24). After ter- 
rible portents have been seen in earth and sky he is 
to appear in the clouds accompanied by angels 
(24:30-31). The exact date of this is, however, 
unknown to him (24:36). His return will be unex- 
pected and he counsels perpetual preparation for 
it (24:44, 45-5 1 ; 25:1-30). At the Judgment, 
Jesus will be the arbiter of the fate of the non- Jew- 
ish world, assigning eternal joy or misery according 
to the attitude men have shown to the Jewish 
people (25:31-46). 

Jesus knows that his death is to take place at 
the Passover period and for the last time warns 
the disciples of it, two days before the event (26 : 2). 
At the Last Supper he points out Judas as the one 
who will cause his arrest (26:24-25). In Geth- 
semane he prays to be delivered but is submissive 
to God's will (26:39-43). He believes he could at 
the last summon myriads of angels for his protec- 
tion; protests against this secret arrest when he 
had taught in public unmolested, but regards the 
whole event as a necessary fulfilment of Scripture 
(26:53-56). At the trial before Caiaphas, Jesus 
again asserts his unique relation to God and de- 



170 What Jesus Taught 

scribes his return upon the clouds (26:64). On the 
cross he loses his feeling of God's presence and 
cries aloud (27:46). After the resurrection Jesus 
appoints a rendezvous with the disciples in Galilee, 
at which time he asserts his supreme authority and 
instructs them to evangelize the world (28:10, 
16-20). 

Recapitulation. — Summing up Matthew's report 
of Jesus' teaching concerning himself, we find Jesus 
strongly conscious of his own significance; making 
insistent demand for devotion to himself and his 
cause; asserting his power to forgive sins; affirming 
extraordinary, if not omnipotent powers and unique 
relationship to God; claiming superiority to Jonah 
and Solomon; calling himself the Son of Man and 
proclaiming an apocalyptic program which included 
his return upon the clouds with angels, that return 
being preceded by terrific calamities and followed 
by a world-judgment; expressing sympathy with 
crowds and forbidding interference with the chil- 
dren who were brought to him; giving assurance 
that those who sacrifice for his sake will be abun- 
dantly rewarded; repeatedly predicting his suffer- 
ings, death, and resurrection, sometimes in consider- 
able detail; warning the disciples against impostors 
during the calamitous days preceding his return 
and counseling watchfulness and preparation; as 
seeing in the closing events of his life a fulfilment 
of Scripture; as praying to escape his sufferings, 



About Himself 171 

but yielding to the Father's will; as believing him- 
self able to summon hosts of angels to save him 
from arrest; as losing upon the cross his sustaining 
sense of the presence of God; as limiting his own 
ministry to the Jews, but after his resurrection 
sending the disciples out to evangelize the world. 

THE TEACHING IN LUKE 

Summary of Luke's report. — Luke's first record 
of a teaching of Jesus about himself narrates his 
reply to his mother in which he refers to the Temple 
as his Father's house (2 149), a remark which taken 
in connection with his boyhood interest in the Jew- 
ish law has been thought to show that Jesus enjoyed 
a special sense of relationship to God even from a 
very early age. He anticipates opposition in his 
own city and in his synagogue address angers his 
fellow-townsman by his pro-gentile attitude (4:23- 
30) . He feels the urge of his mission as a preacher 
of the Kingdom (4 : 43) . As in Mark and Matthew, 
Jesus demonstrates his power to forgive sins by 
curing a paralytic (5:24-25). He speaks of his 
presence or absence as determining the joy or sor- 
row of the disciples (5:34). His sense of ability 
to command appears in his call of Levi (5:27). He 
feels a special mission to the irreligious (5:32). 
He anticipates persecution on his account for the 
disciples (6:22). Action upon, or failure to act 
upon, his teachings determines men's future for 



172 What Jesus Taught 

weal or woe (6 : 46-49) . As an answer to John the 
Baptist's query, he cites the miracles he has per- 
formed and felicitates those who are not repelled 
by him (7:18-23). He compares unfavorably the 
lack of attentions shown him by Simon the Pharisee 
with the devotion of the woman who anointed him 
with costly ointment (7:44-50). As in the other 
Synoptic Gospels he calls those his kin who do 
God ' s will (8:19-21). Questioning the disciples as 
to the popular opinion concerning him he elicits 
from Peter the reply that he is God's Messiah, a 
statement which he instructs them to keep secret 
(9:20-21). He predicts his own rejection, death, 
and resurrection (9:22) and calls upon his followers 
for devotion to the death (9:23-25). His return 
in glory is not far distant (9: 26-27). He will per- 
mit nothing to prevent obedience to the peremptory 
demand of discipleship (9:57-62). Welcome or 
rejection of the disciples upon their preaching tour 
is tantamount to a welcome or rejection of himself 
(10:16). He confers upon the seventy super- 
human abilities over snakes, scorpions, and demons 
(10:19). The "Johannine" passage mentioned 
above in treating of Matthew's account of Jesus' 
teaching appears also in Luke (10:22-23). He 
makes the same argument against the charge of 
demon possession that appears in Mark and Mat- 
thew (11:17-22), though in Luke the remark in 
reference to the unpardonable sin is transferred to a 



About Himself 173 

later point (12:10). As before, Jesus asserts his 
superiority to Jonah and Solomon (11 130-32). He 
refuses to act as arbitrator in a family difficulty over 
an inheritance (12:14). He warns the disciples 
to be ready for his future coming (12:40). He 
realizes the divisive and revolutionary character of 
his teaching (12:49-53). At his return there will 
be those whose unpreparedness will bring about 
their rejection (13:23-30). Jesus meets non- 
chalantly the Pharisee's warning as to Herod's 
desire to put him to death, regarding himself as 
" immortal till his work was done" (13:31 -3 2). In 
the intermediate period before his return the dis- 
ciples will wish longingly for days like those they 
are now enjoying in his presence. Indifference and 
preoccupation will mark social life before his return 
which will be sudden and destructive (17:22-36). 
He welcomes children (18:16); denies the right to 
be called "good," a term applicable to God alone 
(18:19); proposes voluntary poverty and disciple- 
ship to a rich inquirer (18:22). In the parable of 
the Wicked Husbandmen he lays claim to a unique 
relationship to God (20:13) and predicts dire pun- 
ishment to the nation for rejecting him (20: 15-18). 
Before his return many impostors will arise, imper- 
sonating himself (21:8). Adherence to him will 
entail persecution for the disciples (21:12, 17). 
After the period of calamity, he will appear upon a 
cloud in power and glory (21:27). They are to 



174 What Jesus Taught 

pray for fortitude to endure the intermediate days 
of testing (21:36). At the Last Supper he uses 
bread and wine as tokens of his approaching death 
(22 : 19-20). He promises the Twelve thrones and 
judgeships over the twelve tribes of Israel (22:29- 
30). In Gethsemane, Jesus prays for deliverance 
from his approaching suffering, but yields to the 
Father's will (22 142). As in Matthew he protests 
against the secrecy of his arrest as not in keeping 
with his own bold and public teaching (22:52-53). 
Before the Sanhedrin he asserts his favored relation 
to God, a statement that is taken as blasphemy 
(22:67-71). On the way to the cross Jesus 
addresses the women along the way, predicting a 
period of terror that is approaching (23:27-31). 
On the cross he promises one of his fellow-sufferers 
a place in Paradise (23:43). Luke omits Jesus' 
despairing cry, "My God! My God! Why hast 
thou forsaken me?" and gives the confident utter- 
ance, "Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit " (23 : 46) . On the walk to Emmaus after the 
resurrection he upbraids his companions for their 
failure to understand the Old Testament passages 
relating to him and his sufferings, following this 
by his own interpretation of them (24 : 24-27). He 
demonstrates the reality of his body to the incredu- 
lous disciples (24:39-40). He appoints the dis- 
ciples to the task of world-evangelization. For- 
giveness of sins is to be preached in his name. He 



About Himself 175 

will presently endow the disciples with extraor- 
dinary powers promised by the Father (24:49). 

Recapitulation. — By way of summary of Luke's 
presentation of Jesus' teaching about himself we 
note that it agrees largely with that of Mark and 
Matthew, the material peculiar to Luke not adding 
appreciably to the other gospels' report in this 
particular. Jesus is marked throughout Luke by a 
sense of significance, strength and command; he 
realizes his importance to the disciples and the 
explosive and dangerous nature of his message; he 
counts those as relatives who do God's will; he 
forbids the disciples to make known their belief in 
his messiahship until after the resurrection, though 
on occasion he does not shrink from declaring it 
himself; he endows certain of his followers with 
supernatural powers of resistance to venom and 
with ability to exorcise demons; he anticipates his 
sufferings, passion, and resurrection; he looks for- 
ward to his return upon the clouds after the period 
of catastrophe. He promises distinction to the 
disciples in the established Kingdom. He believes 
the Old Testament to contain predictions of his 
sufferings and their significance. 

RECAPITULATION OF THE TEACHING AS GIVEN BY 
MARK, MATTHEW, AND LUKE 

We are now ready to assemble in as compact a 
statement as we can the results of our examination 



176 What Jesus Taught 

of Mark, Matthew, and Luke as to what Jesus 
taught about himself. We may best gather our 
findings under subtopics. 

1. His sense of personal significance. Jesus in 
his teaching about himself shows a stupendous 
assertiveness. He can forgive sins; he is given 
power from God to do miracles; he is all in all to 
his disciples; he has special intimacy with and 
understanding of God ; he calls men to discipleship 
peremptorily and will not abide delay; he disre- 
gards long-established religious customs; he ex- 
tends and spiritualizes the Mosaic Law; to attrib- 
ute the source of his powers to a demonic agency 
he regards as an unpardonable sin; he is the chief 
figure in the Kingdom of God, which to all intents 
and purposes is really a Kingdom of Jesus; he 
expects to return some time after his resurrection 
on the clouds with angels and act as judge over the 
eternal destinies of the gentile world, while the 
Twelve act as judges of the Jews. 

2. His controlling purpose in life. In the gos- 
pels studied Jesus regards his mission as a ministry. 
This word has lost its luster through professionali- 
zation, but a moment's thinking brings out its 
meaning. Jesus declares himself sent to service. 
The pressure of his feeling keeps him from unduly 
prolonging his stay in a single city; it moves him to 
compassion over crowds of tired and hungry men; 
it leads him to multiply his efforts through the 



About Himself 177 

seventy and the Twelve. His death, too, he con- 
ceived was a necessary part of God's program for 
him and influential in some way in recalling men to 
right living. 

As in other instances, we face here the difficulty 
of the probable intermixture of the views of the 
early Christians along with the actual teaching of 
Jesus. In the Fourth Gospel this process, of which 
the Synoptics bear traces, is carried so far as to 
convince many New Testament scholars that its 
representation of Jesus' teaching about himself 
must be regarded as almost wholly the creation of 
its author or of the group to which he belonged. 
Back of all the representations, however, we sense 
a personality so admirable, so commanding, that 
we too are glad to be his disciples. 



CHAPTER X 

WHAT JESUS TAUGHT: THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 

To assert Christianity's superiority a natural 
claim. — Offhand, we who have been brought up in a 
Christian environment are ready to affirm that 
Christianity is the hope of the world. However, if 
we had been brought up in Mohammedanism or 
Buddhism, the other great missionary religions, we 
should probably say the same thing about the 
religion we knew, for, generally speaking, people 
think as they are taught to think. If we were Jews, 
enthusiastic and devoted as the Jewish people are, 
we should regard Judaism as teaching the truth the 
world needs for its salvation; being Christians, we 
say Christianity, rather than any other religion, is 
the hope of the world. We are, however, under no 
obligation to regard our natural attitude with sus- 
picion, merely because it is natural. We wish only 
to assure ourselves by reviewing some of the things 
that make such an assertion rational at a time when 
Christianity is twenty centuries old and seems to be 
standing on the threshold of a new and greater 
Reformation. 

WHAT IS THE WORLD-HOPE 

Lest we move in a mist of uncertainty and come 
to no landing-place, let us make definite to our- 

178 



The Hope of the World 179 

selves what we mean by the world-hope and, also, 
what we understand by Christianity. First, as to 
the world-hope. Those who are able to view life in 
a large way tell us that human society has passed 
through various stages of development upon a 
gradually ascending scale. The process has been a 
slow one. At times certain civilizations have out- 
stripped their neighbors and made a great place in 
history. For various reasons they have then 
grown weak, and younger and more virile nations 
have taken their place. Now and again devastat- 
ing wars, or a breakdown of national character, 
have delayed the process or development. But in 
general, progress has been made. Though beaten 
back here and there, humanity has been gradually 
and painfully rising. Now what is the goal of the 
social process ? Toward what is history tending ? 
Two answers: the catastrophic and the evolu- 
tionary. — To this question two answers are given. 
One is that history is to end in a cataclysm of fail- 
ure. The world is essentially bad and its condition 
is hopeless. It is like a house on fire from which 
only a few precious articles can be saved. Our busi- 
ness as Christian leaders is to save what we can and 
wait patiently for the wind-up of history at the 
second coming of Christ, which, we are assured, is 
close upon us. The second answer is both less 
dramatic and in some respects less comforting. 
It looks forward to an indefinite future, during 



180 What Jesus Taught 

which the human family will continue its slow 
upward journey for millions upon millions of years. 
It thinks of the ideal state of society as a state to 
be attained as the present one has been, by persist- 
ent constructive effort on the part of men. 

Can Christianity meet the evolutionary view? — 
If this view be the one that history shall show to be 
correct, does Christianity give an adequate answer 
to the question, What is the goal of the social pro- 
cess ? It does. When Christianity lay as a germ, 
an idea, in the mind of its founder, it had in it that 
answer in the spiritual elements of Jesus' concep- 
tion of the Kingdom of God. When that state of 
society has been attained all over the planet in 
which human beings live together on terms of 
honesty, sympathy, kindness, helpfulness, service, 
reverence, and all that we put into the ideal term 
brotherhood, which far transcends what we actually 
have known among brothers, and when human 
beings all over the planet revere and worship one 
holy, just, and kindly God, in whom are lodged all 
the virtues we put into the ideal term fatherhood, 
which far transcends what we have actually known 
among fathers, then man will have become super- 
man and the Kingdom of God will have come. 

It is this world-hope of a perfected society, 
when, in the phrase of the Apocalypse, the new 
Jerusalem is let down from God upon earth and the 
habitation of God is with men, which thrills the 



The Hope of the World 181 

hearts of many Christians today. They see in 
Christianity an ideal which is sufficient to give them 
a rational explanation of what has been called the 
"riddle of the universe." 

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

i. The church. — We turn now to the second 
question we set before ourselves: What is Chris- 
tianity? This is not an easy question, to be 
answered in an instant. Definition is always a 
task of surprising difficulty, particularly so when 
the definition proposes to delimit the elusive out- 
lines of spiritual realities. "What is Christianity? 
has called forth monographs and whole volumes. 
Of the various answers that suggest themselves, 
two may be considered. First, it may be said 
Christianity is an objective organization function- 
ing in society, i.e., Christianity is historically the 
church. When we speak of the spread of Chris- 
tianity in the Roman Empire we mean that from 
village to village and from city to city the new 
religion spread until everywhere there were groups 
of Christians. If in the province of Galatia in 54 
a.d. there were 10 churches and 1,000 Christians, 
and in 64 a.d. there were 20 churches and 2,000 
Christians, we should say that Christianity had 
been spreading. Out of simple beginnings a power- 
ful ecclesiastical organization developed so that 
historically and objectively for some fifteen cen- 



1 82 What Jesus Taught 

turies Christianity was the Catholic church. For 
400 years Christianity has taken also another form, 
so that the phase most familiar to us is Protestant- 
ism. When Christianity spreads in its Protestant 
form it means that Protestant churches are being 
organized and communicants are increasing. If in 
China in 1870 there are 200 churches and 20,000 
Christians and in 1880 there were 300 churches 
and 30,000 Christians, we should say Christianity 
is spreading. Historically and objectively for 
400 years Christianity to Protestants has meant 
the extension of organized churches and increase 
in church membership. Christianity spreads as 
churches spread and members increase. What 
then is Christianity ? From this point of view it 
is an ecclesiastical organization, Catholic or Prot- 
estant. 

2. A system of belief. — From a second point of 
view, Christianity is a faith, the acceptance of a 
statement or system of belief. Thus when we 
speak of a Confucianist's accepting Christianity, we 
mean that he has come to regard as true the doc- 
trinal statements made by Christian representatives 
or publications. Christianity is thought of as a 
series of propositions whose truth is divinely guar- 
anteed. When a man believes them he becomes a 
Christian. On the mission fields this presentation 
of Christianity has frequently been the accepted 
method. Christianity in this sense spreads as 



The Hope of the World 183 

additional individuals come to give credence to its 
doctrines. 

3. A way of behavior. — Still a third answer to 
this question occurs to some. Christianity they 
say is a quality of life, a way of behavior. It may 
or may not reside in an organization. The act or 
attitude of an individual or corporation may or 
may not be Christian, irrespective of names or 
titles. The acts of the same man or corporation 
may at times be Christian and at other times not 
Christian. Men may be partly Christianized. 
They may be Christianized in their ecclesiastical 
relations, but not in their commercial relations; 
they may be Christianized in their general social 
relations, but un-Christian in their domestic rela- 
tions, or vice versa. They may be Christian in 
their relations to one sex, but not to the other. 
They may be Christian in their relations with com- 
patriots, but un-Christian in their relations with 
foreigners. Partial Christianization is the common 
characteristic and common calamity of us all. 
Failure to recognize that life is made Christian inch 
by inch and that a man may be Christian in one 
department of his being and not in another creates 
both misunderstanding of ourselves and accusation 
of others. Our ideal is to be pan-Christians. 
Christianity, from this point of view, is an idealiza- 
tion of human relationships. It consists in an 
attitude toward life's ultimate realities, self, others, 



184 What Jesus Taught 

and God. This highly spiritual conception of 
Christianity as socialized behavior would admit of 
one's being a Christian while at the same time 
remaining a Jew or a Buddhist. 1 

It is not likely that any one of these answers 
is altogether wrong. Christianity may well be 
all three, organization, conviction, and behavior. 
Just now we stress the last, knowing that it will 
bring the others after it. It is just as true that 
action molds belief as that belief controls action. 

4. What Jesus taught. — A fourth answer which 
may be taken as including all the others is this: 
Christianity, on its thought side, is what Jesus 
taught minus the intermingled apocalypticism of 
the gospels and plus all development of ideas impli- 
cit in his teaching or in harmony with the highest 
representations of his spirit. It is the Kingdom 
teaching in its spiritual and ethical statement 
expressing itself in ways suited to the needs and 
in accordance with the knowledge of any given 
time. As to its organization, it may take any 
form that approves itself as effective. As a way 
of behavior it consists in doing all in human 
power to serve humanity and raise the standard 
of human life. 

Summary of working principles. — Summing up 
the working principles suggested by our study 

1 For an exact parallel in the spiritual conception of Judaism, 
see Paul's remark in Rom. 2: 28-29. 



The Hope of the World 185 

of what Jesus taught we may state them as 
follows: 

1. The human emphasis. In all situations the 
most important element is the human one, that is 
the human beings affected. Employers are learn- 
ing this and are thinking, not only of the quality 
and quantity of the product, but of the effect of 
the process upon the character of the employee. It 
is easy to fall into the way of thinking that the 
trivial matter of routine we happen to be engaged 
in is more important than the human being whose 
need presents a temporary interruption. Such an 
attitude may well be represented by the priest and 
the Levite in Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan. 
Let us settle it forever in our minds that no program 
or prejudice or theological doctrine is so important 
as doing bits of human service. 

2. The character emphasis. In human beings 
the most important element is character. Educa- 
tion, native ability, manners, money, are all desir- 
able, but most important of all is that quality of 
personality which is the result of heredity, environ- 
ment, and personal decisions, and which at any 
given moment is the expression of what the person 
is. As this has largely been made by action, it 
may be changed by action. 

3. The developmental emphasis. Since char- 
acter is a product, we must constantly think, plan, 
work, talk, and act in a way calculated to conserve 



1 86 What Jesus Taught 

the good character we and our fellows have attained, 
and to develop better character. As character is 
so molded by experience, those who have it in their 
power to choose experiences for others hold a serious 
opportunity and responsibility. To provide whole- 
some, developmental experience is a duty we owe 
both to others and to ourselves. We must be like a 
chess-player, thinking several moves ahead, i.e., 
studying the modification of character likely to be 
produced. Because it led nowhere, much educa- 
tional and religious work has been a failure. Here 
is the preliminary, testing question always: What 
character changes may I expect this to produce ? 

4. The religious emphasis. Religion is always 
a powerful element in shaping character. People 
have latent religious capacities which rightly 
developed will make for breadth of interest, depth 
of conviction, and social usefulness. As planners 
and builders of the more ideal life of the future, our 
task is therefore ultimately and essentially a reli- 
gious one. In the past, religious work has been too 
largely confined to the communication of opinion. 
Now religious work is better conceived of as partici- 
pation in the process of producing an improved 
type of human living. 

5. The individual emphasis. Much of the most 
effective work we do is in personal conversation. 
In these conversations there is need of sympathy 
and understanding rather than dogmatic argument. 



The Hope of tee World 187 

Often we help most by just listening. For every 
person there is a clue to the fullest life, the most 
complete realizing of himself. Our task is, having 
first found that clue for ourselves, to help others in 
finding it for themselves. We can not do it with a 
formula, for as persons differ methods must. What 
we want is that every person shall reach his best 
possibilities. To do that he must Christianize his 
living, that is, act in accordance with the best 
ideals accessible to him. As we help people into 
reverence, prayer, kindhness, courage, cleanness, 
sincerity, and unselfish action, we shall be helping 
to realize that Kingdom of which Jesus taught and 
which, in its ideal, spiritual aspects is still the hope 
of the world. 

Final summary of the course. — We find Jesus' 
teaching as a part of the Bible, a book which thou- 
sands of people of varying types, nationalities, and 
interests are studying, among whom is our own dis- 
cussion group. We therefore surveyed the motives 
that lead people to study the Bible, and decided 
what our own motive was to be. In beginning any 
study it is naturally important to get at first a 
general conception of its character. This is espe- 
cially necessary in the case of the Bible, because of 
the influence of one's general conception of its 
character upon one's religious views. For this 
reason we discussed that topic, making clear to our- 
selves what our attitude toward the Bible was to be. 



1 88 What Jesus Taught 

To orientate ourselves further in our study, we 
considered the world Jesus lived in, as to its constit- 
uent elements and its controlling ideas. To avoid 
the superficial notion that it is perfectly easy to 
understand the teaching of Jesus, we inquired into 
the importance and the difficulty of knowing what 
Jesus taught. We then brought together all his 
teaching on several topics of present interest, viz., 
civilization, hate, war and non-resistance, democ- 
racy, religion, himself, making a serious effort to 
understand it and to weigh its value for our own 
lives, concluding with the present study of the 
relation of Jesus' teaching to the world's ideal 
future. 

Intellectual honesty and the spirit of our age 
forbid us to accept without thinking any religious 
teaching, however ancient and respectable. Free- 
dom to inquire and to investigate is our inherent 
right, and we do well to insist upon it. To main- 
tain an independent, impersonal attitude, critical 
in the right sense, is essential to clear thinking and 
correct conclusions when one deals with historical 
studies, such as the study of what Jesus taught is. 
The New Testament, as well as the Old, the 
reported teaching of Jesus, as well as the reported 
teaching of Socrates, must approve itself to our 
reason and our consciences before it can rightly 
become a norm for our Hving. If we have been 
accustomed to suppose it our duty to accept with- 



The Hope of the World 189 

out inquiry what is presented to us as the teaching 
of Jesus or the Bible or our church, wc have not 
been living up to our intellectual obligations, and 
are in duty bound to scrutinize the truth and value 
of these claims and to examine our convictions to 
see how well founded they are. This is a necessary 
initial part of the larger constructive process by 
which we arrive at religious views which are reason- 
able and tenable and which articulate with our 
findings in other fields of study and experience. 
The mere questioning or discarding of views for- 
merly held is not enough, yet people sometimes stop 
there, not realizing that negation is the mark of a 
tyro, and that the freedom we need is not freedom 
to destroy, but freedom to build. 

Centuries and millenniums will pass. Millions 
of years hence people will be living where we live 
now, a life modified by the changes and improve- 
ments that will have been made. But always 
truth, righteousness, reverence, forgiveness, help- 
fulness, human interest, modesty, devotion to a 
great ideal, the love of nature and of little children, 
enthusiasm over a visioned future, all things that 
Jesus stood for, will be as real and valuable as 
they were in his day and as they are now. It is the 
discovery of these imperishable values that make 
worth while the study of What Jesus Taught. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Antiquity of Jesus, 66 

Apocrypha : of the New Testa- 
ment, 35 ff.; of the Old 
Testament, 32 f. 

Apostolic Fathers, 37 

Approach : the theological, 
69 f.; the historical, 70; the 
practical, 71 

Aramaic, 6 

Baraca classes, xx 

Bible: a literature, 26; effect 
of not studying, 18 ff.; lan- 
guages of, 6; real value of, 
42 f. 

Bible readers in England, 19 
footnote 

Bible translation, history of, 41 

Biblical ideas, development of, 
27 f. 

Bibliomancy, 14 ff. 

Character building, 16 ff. 
Christianity: as the church, 

181 f.; a system of belief, 

182 f.; a way of behavior, 

183 f.; its superiority, 178; 
what Jesus taught, 184 

Civilization: of Jesus' time, 74; 
Jesus' ideal of, 74 f . ; making 
of, 72 f.; marks of an ideal, 
73; meaning of term, 72 

Custom, 1 

Democracy: Jesus and, 118; 

fundamental conceptions of, 

119 ff. 
Demons, 52 f. 



Devotion, 16 

Discussion group method, 2; 
essential of, 56 

Epictetus, 16, 50 
Essentials for successful dis- 
cussions, xix 

Final summary of the course, 

187 
Fourth Gospel, 177 

God in our world, 59 f. 

Gospels: doctrinal coloring of, 
65; interweaving of docu- 
ments in, 65 

Greek of the New Testament, 8 

Habit, 1 

Hate: problem of, 101 ff.; 

Jesus and, 102 ff . 
Hebrew of the Old Testament, 

6f. 
Historical criticism, 40 f . 
History, interest in, 9 

Impulsive action, 1 

Josephus, 50-52 

Kingdom of God, 74-100, 

passim 
Kingdom teaching, present 

value of, 97 f. 

Language of Jesus, 64 f . 
Literature: definition of, 23; 

forms of, in the Bible, 28; 

function of, 25; the Bible a 

literature, 26 



193 



194 



What Jesus Taught 



Method of study, 75 ff. 
Miracles, views concerning, 

53 fr 
Misdirection in Bible-study, 5 
Modern versions, 42 f . 

Non-resistance : a mediating 
view of, 109 f.; assump- 
tions regarding and objec- 
tions to, nof.; the truth 
in and objections, 112 ff. 

Obstreperous members, how to 
handle, xxii 

Palestine, history of, 44 ff. ; 

life of, 46; significance of, 

45 f- 
Prayer, 2 
Proof-texts, use of the Bible 

for, 10 ff. 

Rabbinic argument, 164 

Reasoned action, 1 

Religion: in Palestine, 128 ff.; 

Jesus a great teacher of, 129; 

summary of Jesus' teaching 

concerning, 155 ff. 
Resume of the Old Testament, 

29 ff. 

Sermon-making, 12 ff. 
Sermon on the Mount, 137 ff. 



Son of Man, meaning of, 160 f., 

167 
Source material, meagerness 

of, 62 
Superficiality in Bible-study, 4 
Supernatural evil agencies : 

early Christian view of, 

50 ff . ; present view of, 49 f . 
Survey of the New Testament, 

33 ff- 
Synoptikos, meaning of, xvii 

Textual criticism, 39 f. 
Traditional religious ideas, 66 

War, direct teaching concern- 
ing, 105; indirect teaching, 
105 ff. 

"What Would Jesus Do?" 67 

Working principles, 184 ff. 

World-civilization, view of a 
possible, 98 ff. 

World-hope: catastrophic and 
evolutionary views of, 179; 
definition of, 178 f. 

World of Jesus, the, 47 f.; 
God, supreme person in, 58; 
people a factor of, 56 

Y.M.C.A., xviii, xx 
Y.W.C.A., xviii, xx 



PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 



THE CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES 

The Constructive Studies comprise volumes suitable 
for all grades, from kindergarten to adult years, in 
schools or churches. In the production of these studies 
the editors and authors have sought to embody not 
only their own ideals but the best product of the 
thought of all who are contributing to the theory and 
practice of modern religious education. They have 
had due regard for fundamental principles of peda- 
gogical method, for the results of the best modern 
biblical scholarship, and for those contributions to 
religious education which may be made by the use of 
a religious interpretation of all life-processes, whether 
in the field of science, literature, or social phenomena. 

Their task is not regarded as complete because of 
having produced one or more books suitable for each 
grade. There will be a constant process of renewal 
and change, and the possible setting aside of books 
which, because of changing conditions in the religious 
world or further advance in the science of religious 
education, no longer perform their function, and the 
continual enrichment of the series by new volumes so 
that it may always be adapted to those who are 
taking initial steps in modern religious education, as 
well as to those who have accepted and are ready to 
put into practice the most recent theories. 

As teachers profoundly interested in the problems of 
religious education, the editors have invited to co- 
operate with them authors chosen from a wide territory 
and in several instances already well known through 
practical experiments in the field in which they are 
asked to write. 



The editors are well aware that those who are most 
deeply interested in religious education hold that 
churches and schools should be accorded perfect 
independence in their choice of literature regardless of 
publishing-house interests and they heartily sympa- 
thize with this standard. They realize that many 
schools will select from the Constructive Studies such 
volumes as they prefer, but at the same time they 
hope that the Constructive Studies will be most widely 
serviceable as a series. The following analysis of the 
series will help the reader to get the point of view of 
the editors and authors. 

KINDERGARTEN, 4-6 YEARS 

The kindergarten child needs most of all to gain 
those simple ideals of life which will keep him in har- 
mony with his surroundings in the home, at play, and 
in the out-of-doors. He is most susceptible to a reli- 
gious interpretation of all these, which can best be 
fostered through a program of story, play, handwork, 
and other activities as outlined in 

The Sunday Kindergarten (Ferris). A teachers' manual 
giving directions for the use of a one- or two-hour 
period with story, song, play, and handwork. Per- 
manent and temporary material for the children's 
table work, and story leaflets to be taken home. 

PRIMARY, 6-8 YEARS, GRADES I-III 

At the age of six years when children enter upon a 
new era because of their recognition by the first grade 
in the public schools the opportunity for the cultivation 
of right social reactions is considerably increased. 
Their world still, however, comprises chiefly the home, 
the school, the playground, and the phenomena of 



nature. A normal religion at this time is one which 
will enable the child to develop the best sort of life 
in all these relationships, which now present more 
complicated moral problems than in the earlier stage. 
Religious impressions may be made through inter- 
pretations of nature, stories of life, song, prayer, simple 
scripture texts, and handwork. All of these are 
embodied in 

Child Religion in Song and Story (Chamberlin and Kern). 
Three interchangeable volumes, only one of which is 
used at one time in all three grades. Each lesson pre- 
sents a complete service, song, prayers, responses, texts? 
story, and handwork. Constructive and beautiful 
handwork books are provided for the pupil. 

JUNIOR, 9 YEARS, GRADE IV 

When the children have reached the fourth grade 
they are able to read comfortably and have developed 
an interest in books, having a " reading book" in 
school and an accumulating group of story-books at 
home. One book in the household is as yet a mystery, 
the Bible, of which the parents speak reverently as 
God's Book. It contains many interesting stories 
and presents inspiring characters which are, however, 
buried in the midst of much that would not interest 
the children. To help them to find these stories and 
to show them the living men who are their heroes or 
who were the writers of the stories, the poems, or 
the letters, makes the Bible to them a living book 
which they will enjoy more and more as the years 
pass. This service is performed by 

An Introduction to the Bible for Teachers of Children (Cham- 
berlin). Story-reading from the Bible for the school 
and home, designed to utilize the growing interest in 
books and reading found in children of this age, in 



cultivating an attitude of intelligent interest in the 
Bible and enjoyment of suitable portions of it. Full 
instructions with regard to picturesque, historical, and 
social introductions are given the teacher. A pupil's 
homework book, designed to help him to think 
of the story as a whole and to express his thinking, 
is provided for the pupil. 

JUNIOR, 10-12 YEARS, GRADES V-VH 

Children in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades are 
hero-worshipers. In the preceding grade they have 
had a brief introduction to the life of Jesus through 
their childish explorations of the gospels. His 
character has impressed them already as heroic and 
they are eager to know more about him, therefore the 
year is spent in the study of 

The Life of Jesus (Gates). The story of Jesus graphically 
presented from the standpoint of a hero. A teacher's 
manual contains full instructions for preparation of 
material and presentation to the class. A partially 
completed story of Jesus prepared for the introduction 
of illustrations, maps, and original work, together with 
all materials required, is provided for the pupil. 

In the sixth grade a new point of approach to some 
of the heroes with whom the children are already 
slightly acquainted seems desirable. The Old Testa- 
ment furnishes examples of men who were brave 
warriors, magnanimous citizens, loyal patriots, great 
statesmen, and champions of democratic justice. To 
make the discovery of these traits in ancient characters 
and to interpret them in the terms of modern boyhood 
and girlhood is the task of two volumes in the list. 
The choice between them will be made on the basis of 
preference for handwork or textbook work for the 
children. 



Heroes of Israel (Soares). Stories selected from the Old 
Testament which are calculated to inspire the imagina- 
tion of boys and girls of the early adolescent period. 
The most complete instructions for preparation and 
presentation of the lesson are given the teacher in his 
manual. The pupil's book provides the full text of each 
story and many questions which will lead to the consid- 
eration of problems arising in the life of boys and girls 
of this age. 

Old Testament Stories (Corbett). Also a series of stories 
selected from the Old Testament. Complete instruc- 
tions for vivid presentation are given the teacher in 
his manual. The pupil's material consists of a note- 
book containing a great variety of opportunities for 
constructive handwork. 

Paul was a great hero. Most people know him only 
as a theologian. His life presents miracles of courage, 
struggle, loyalty, and self-abnegation. The next book 
in the series is intended to help the pupil to see such a 
man. The student is assisted by a wealth of local 
color. 

Paul of Tarsus (Atkinson). The story of Paul which is 
partially presented to the pupil and partially the result 
of his own exploration in the Bible and in the library. 
Much attention is given to story of Paul's boyhood 
and his adventurous travels, inspiring courage and 
loyalty to a cause. The pupil's notebook is similar in 
form to the one used in the study of Gates's "Life of 
Jesus, " but more advanced in thought. 

HIGH SCHOOL, 13-17 YEARS 
In the secular school the work of the eighth grade 
is tending toward elimination. It is, therefore, con- 
sidered here as one of the high-school grades. In the 
high-school years new needs arise. There is necessary 



a group of books which will dignify the study of the 
Bible and give it as history and literature a place in 
education, at least equivalent to that of other histories 
and literatures which have contributed to the progress 
of the world. This series is rich in biblical studies 
which will enable young people to gain a historical 
appreciation of the religion which they profess. Such 
books are 

The Gospel According to Mark (Burton). A study of the 
life of Jesus from this gospel. The full text is printed in 
the book, which is provided with a good dictionary and 
many interesting notes and questions of very great 
value to both teacher and pupil. 

The First Book of Samuel (Willett). Textbook for teacher 
and pupil in which the fascinating stories of Samuel, 
Saul, and David are graphically presented. The com- 
plete text of the first book of Samuel is given, many 
interesting explanatory notes, and questions which 
will stir the interest of the pupil, not only in the present 
volume but in the future study of the Old Testament. 

The Life of Christ (Burgess). A careful historical study of 
the life of Christ from the four gospels. A manual for 
teacher and pupil presents a somewhat exhaustive treat- 
ment, but full instructions for the selection of material 
for classes in which but one recitation a week occurs 
are given the teacher in a separate outline. 

The Hebrew Prophets (Chamberlin). An inspiring presen- 
tation of the lives of some of the greatest of the prophets 
from the point of view of their work as citizens and 
patriots. In the manual for teachers and pupils the 
biblical text in a good modern translation is included. 

Christianity in the Apostolic Age (Gilbert). A story of 
early Christianity chronologically presented, full of 
interest in the hands of a teacher who enjoys the his- 
torical point of view. 



In the high-school years also young people find it 
necessary to face the problem of living the Christian 
life in a modern world, both as a personal experience 
and as a basis on which to build an ideal society. To 
meet this need a number of books intended to inspire 
boys and girls to look forward to taking their places 
as home-builders and responsible citizens of a great 
Christian democracy and to intelligently choose their 
task in it are prepared or in preparation. The following 
are now ready: 

Problems of Boyhood (Johnson). A series of chapters 
discussing matters of supreme interest to boys and 
girls, but presented from the point of view of the boy. 
A splendid preparation for efficiency in all life's relation- 
ships. 
Lives Worth Living (Peabody). A series of studies of 
important women, biblical and modern, representing 
different phases of life and introducing the opportunity 
to discuss the possibilities of effective womanhood in 
the modern world. 
The Third and Fourth Generation (Downing). A series of 
studies in heredity based upon studies of phenomena 
in the natural world and leading up to important 
historical facts and inferences in the human world. 

ADULT GROUP 

The Biblical studies assigned to the high-school 
period are in most cases adaptable to adult class 
work. There are other volumes, however, intended 
only for the adult group, which also includes the 
young people beyond the high-school age. They are 
as follows : 

The Life of Christ (Burton and Mathews). A careful 
historical study of the life of Christ from the four 
gospels, with copious notes, reading references, 
maps, etc. 



What Jesus Taught (Slaten). This book develops an unusual 
but stimulating method of teaching groups of students 
in colleges, Christian associations, and churches. After 
a swift survey of the material and spiritual environment 
of Jesus this book suggests outlines for discussions of his 
teaching on such topics as civilization, hate, war and 
non-resistance, democracy, religion, and similar topics. 
Can be effectively used by laymen as well as professional 
leaders. 

Great Men of the Christian Church (Walker). A series of 
delightful biographies of men who have been influential 
in great crises in the history of the church. 

Christian Faith for Men of Today ( Cook) . A re-interpretation 
of old doctrines in the light of modern attitudes. 

Social Duties from the Christian Point of View (Henderson). 
Practical studies in the fundamental social relationships 
which make up life in the family, the city, and the state. 

Religious Education in the Family (Cope). An illuminating 
study of the possibilities of a normal religious develop- 
ment in the family life. Invaluable to parents. 

Christianity and Its Bible (Waring). A remarkably compre- 
hensive sketch of the Old and the New Testament 
religion, the Christian church, and the present status 
of Christianity. 

It is needless to say that the Constructive Studies present 
no sectarian dogmas and are used by churches and schools 
of all denominational affiliations. In the grammar- and 
high-school years more books are provided than there are 
years in which to study them, each book representing a 
school year's work. Local conditions, and the preference 
of the Director of Education or the teacher of the class 
will be the guide in choosing the courses desired, remember- 
ing that in the preceding list the approximate place given 
to the book is the one which the editors and authors con- 
sider most appropriate. 

For prices consult the latest price list. Address 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

CHICAGO .... ILLINOIS 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2005 

PreservationTechnologie: 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIO 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 

I70A\ 77Q.91 1 1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




ill 

014 397 029 2 



■ ill 



, ■■■■■■■ 




